Vocal complaints and risk factors in practitioners of speech-language pathology

Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) are a group of professional voice users which their main professional tool is their voice. With respect to the dependence of their professional continuity and quality of life to their optimal voice, the research aim selected as study of frequency of vocal complaints and its relation with risk factors.

Risk factors and vocal complaints' data of 71 employed SLPs (14 men and 57 women) with at least 3 years of clinical experience gathered with two questionnaires. Face and content validity of the Questionnaires was confirmed with item effect and Lawshe methods, respectively. Reliability confirmed with internal consistency method. Participants divided into two groups with and without vocal complaints, by having at least one complaint or not, respectively. Descriptive and logistic regression was used by SPSS21.

Frequency of vocal complaints was 73.2%, and most frequent was hoarseness (52.1%). Most frequent risk factors were psychological problems (60%), talking a lot (59.6%), and digestive problems (34.6%). Frequency of digestive problems were significantly more in vocal complaint group (P=0.014). History of digestive problems was a predictor of vocal complaint (P = 0.048, OR = 8.5).

SLPs experience a lot of psychological and digestive problems and also talking a lot. Presence of digestive problems can increase the probability of vocal complaint. Compatibility of these findings with findings of some other researches shows the necessity of more attention to these factors