Comparing acoustic and perceptual voice parameters in female teachers based on voice complaints

Abstract

Background and Aim: Teachers are a large group of professional voice users that several risk factors and voice demands causes various voice complaints among them. As the voice is multidimensional, the aim of this study was acoustic and perceptual measurement of teachers’ voice and comparing the findings between two groups with many and few voice complaints. Methods: Sixty female teachers of high school in Sari, north of Iran, were chosen by available sampling to participate in this cross-sectional study. According to a voice complaints questionnaire, 21 subjects located in few voice complaints and 31 in many voice complaints group. After a working day subjects completed a voice self-assessment questionnaire. Also, teachers’voice were recorded during three tasks including sustained vowels /a/ and /i/, text reading and conversational speech. Acoustic parameters were analyzed by Praat software and 2 speech-language pathalogists performed auditoryperceptual assessment by GRBAS (Grade, Roughness, Breathiness, Asthenia, Strain) scale. Results: Comparing of the voice self-assessment between the two groups demonstrated statistically significant difference (p<0.05); however results of the acoustic and auditory-perceptual measurement did not show significant diffrence. Conclusion: Despite prevalent voice problems in teachers, there are various conditions in terms of complaints and assessments methods. In this study, only a remarkable deviation documented in the client-based assessments in many voice compliants group in comparison with few voice compliants, which would be probably related to different individual’s perception of voice problem between two groups. These results support paying attention to self-assessments in clinical process of voice problems.

Keywords

• Teacher
• voice complaint
• self assessment
• acoustic
• perceptual