Voice disorder and risk factors in spoken voice professionals: an integrative review

ABSTRACT

Purpose

To identify scientific evidence about (Work-Related Voice Disorder) and risk factors, as well as to point out vocal symptoms, instruments and evaluation methods in spoken voice professionals.

Research strategy

Integrative literature review carried out in LILACS, SciELO, MEDLINE/PubMed and Scopus databases.

Selection criteria

Articles with spoken voice professionals, which addressed individual, organizational and/or environmental risk factors linked to symptoms and/or voice disorders, observational studies, fully available, without restriction to language and year of publication.

Results

58 papers were included, the largest publication between the years 2014 and 2022, predominantly in Brazil, with emphasis on the teacher. The most used evaluation method was vocal assessment using self-assessment protocols, followed by auditory-perceptual assessment and laryngological examination. The mostly identified risk factors were individual ones, followed by organizational and environmental ones, in addition to sensory and auditory vocal symptoms having been reported.

Conclusion

The most often self-reported factors were noise, intense voice use, respiratory changes, being female and inappropriate vocal practices. For sensory vocal symptoms, dry throat, throat clearing and vocal fatigue stand out, and for auditory symptoms, hoarseness.

Keywords:
Voice; Voice disorders; Dysphonia; Occupational health; Risk factors