Female Teacher's Voice During Teaching

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Functional Voice Disorder

• Registration Number: NCT03382535
• Lead Sponsor: University of Oulu

Brief Summary

Two voice therapy methods are compared. Activity noise levels and vocal load of teachers during teaching in primary school classrooms are evaluated. Acoustic and Workshop Interventions are implemented in order to reduce noise level during lesson.

Detailed Description

Due to the voice disorders, teachers are a major customer group for voice therapy. The main part of the study is comparison of two voice therapy methods.

There are several factors in the classroom that increase teacher's risk of voice disorders. One of the most significant is high noise level during lessons. This study explores the noise conditions the teachers are working in and how these conditions are related to the voice parameters and symptoms.

Finally, the study aims to determine whether classroom noise level can be lowered by improving classroom acoustics and by noise reducing workshops for teachers and pupils.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2009-12-07
• Primary Completion: 2014-12-20
• Study Completion: 2016-06-14
• Status Verified: 2017-12
• Study First Submitted: 2017-12-01
• Study First Submitted QC: 2017-12-18
• Last Update Submitted: 2017-12-18
• Study First Posted: 2017-12-26
• Last Update Posted: 2017-12-26

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: Female
• Target Recruitment: 54

Inclusion Criteria

• Female teachers or teachers of special needs children from elementary schools
• Voice symptoms and willingness to participate in voice therapy
• Mother tongue Finnish
• No hearing loss, no need to use a hearing aid
• Non-smoking
• No neurological diseases
• No voice therapy during past year
• Successful phoniatric examination with rigid laryngoscopy or nasal endoscopy

Exclusion Criteria

• Mother tongue other than Finnish
• Need to use a hearing aid
• Need for medical treatment in the larynx
• Abnormalities of the larynx
• Vocal cord paresis
• Laryngitis
• Posterior hypertrophy

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
The change of the well-being of the teachers' voice.	Up to one week before the interventions, up to one week after the interventions, 6 months after the interventions, 1 year and 2 years after the interventions and up to one week after the control time (concerning control group).	Subjective evaluation.Data collected with a questionnaire (Voice Activity and Participation Profile, VAPP) from the participants, answers given on a visual analogical scale (VAS) of 100 mm (0 = no disorder, 100 = extreme disorder).