Browsing by Author "Britschgi, Roosa"

Aim of the study. Continuous vocal loading strains the vocal cords, which can lead to voice symptoms. Especially for professional voice users like teachers, voice symptoms may cause psychosocial harm. However, the amount of psychosocial harm is not linked directly to the amount of voice symptoms, but varies according to individual's vocal needs and requirements. Teaching of some subjects is more linked to vocal risk factors and voice symptoms are more common among teachers of certain substances. Previous studies have found that teacher students have more voice symptoms than other university students, but there hasn't been any comparative research about the differences between teacher students studying different subjects. The aim of this study is to investigate the prevalence of voice symptoms of Helsinki University teacher students and examine the psychosocial harm caused to them by voice symptoms. In addition this study investigates how voice symptoms and psychosocial harm influences the assessment of ones voice. Voice symptoms and the amount of psychosocial harm of students of different subjects are being compared in order to see whether there are differences already before graduating. Methods. The data was gathered by electronical questionnaire during spring 2015. The questionnaire was sent out to all students of the department of teacher education in Helsinki University who were on any of the mailing lists of student organizations. A total of 190 students from all classes and training fields participated the study. The questionnaire consists of background information form and questionnaires about vocal symptoms (voice screening test) and the psychosocial impacts of voice disorders (VHI). The data was analyzed mainly by using quantitative methods. Results. The results show that voice symptoms are quite common among teacher students and about 40 % of them reported frequently occurring voice symptoms. This study shows a clear association between voice symptoms and psychosocial harm and the self-assessment of voice. However, one of the main discoveries of this study is that almost 90 % of the students did not have notable psychosocial impacts and almost 80 % actually considered their voice normal. Surprisingly this research shows that students can regard their voice normal despite the fact that they have voice symptoms. The amount of voice symptoms and psychosocial harm was equally high among students of all different subjects.