TY - JOUR
T1 - A vocal hygiene program for mitigating the effects of occupational vocal demand in primary school teachers
AU - Ying Lin, Kelly Jie
AU - Chan, Roger W.
AU - Wu, Chia Hsin
AU - Liu, Sally Chien Hsin
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. All rights reserved.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Purpose: Teachers are occupational voice users with significant vocal demand. This study examined if a vocal hygiene program could mitigate the effects of occupational vocal demand in primary school teachers across 1 month. Method: Sixty female teachers participated, with 30 in an experimental group receiving vocal hygiene education plus daily home practice for 1 month and 30 in a control group with no intervention. Their vocal changes across the month were quantified with (a) acoustic measures on fundamental frequency (fo), vocal intensity, jitter and shimmer, harmonics-to-noise ratio, and smoothed cepstral peak prominence and (b) Voice Handicap Index (VHI-10) and Vocal Fatigue Index (VFI) scores. Results: Analysis of covariance showed significantly larger changes (significant decreases) in conversational fo and in jitter for the experimental group relative to the control group. Post hoc pairwise comparisons following repeated-measures analysis of variance showed significant decreases in conversational fo and in jitter across the month for the experimental group. No significant differ-ences in VHI-10 and VFI scores were found between the groups. Conclusions: Vocal demand–related changes in acoustic measures could be partially mitigated with the vocal hygiene program. Future studies with a more refined intervention program and more long-term follow-up are recommended to better understand the long-term benefits of vocal hygiene programs on pri-mary school teachers.
AB - Purpose: Teachers are occupational voice users with significant vocal demand. This study examined if a vocal hygiene program could mitigate the effects of occupational vocal demand in primary school teachers across 1 month. Method: Sixty female teachers participated, with 30 in an experimental group receiving vocal hygiene education plus daily home practice for 1 month and 30 in a control group with no intervention. Their vocal changes across the month were quantified with (a) acoustic measures on fundamental frequency (fo), vocal intensity, jitter and shimmer, harmonics-to-noise ratio, and smoothed cepstral peak prominence and (b) Voice Handicap Index (VHI-10) and Vocal Fatigue Index (VFI) scores. Results: Analysis of covariance showed significantly larger changes (significant decreases) in conversational fo and in jitter for the experimental group relative to the control group. Post hoc pairwise comparisons following repeated-measures analysis of variance showed significant decreases in conversational fo and in jitter across the month for the experimental group. No significant differ-ences in VHI-10 and VFI scores were found between the groups. Conclusions: Vocal demand–related changes in acoustic measures could be partially mitigated with the vocal hygiene program. Future studies with a more refined intervention program and more long-term follow-up are recommended to better understand the long-term benefits of vocal hygiene programs on pri-mary school teachers.
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U2 - 10.1044/2023_JSLHR-22-00490
DO - 10.1044/2023_JSLHR-22-00490
M3 - Article
C2 - 37080241
AN - SCOPUS:85159731468
SN - 1092-4388
VL - 66
SP - 1525
EP - 1540
JO - Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
JF - Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
IS - 5
ER -