Female Teacher's Voice During Teaching

Functional Voice Disorder Clinical Trial

Official title:

The Well-being of Female Teacher's Voice During Teaching

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03382535
• Other study ID #: Ooulu
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• First received: December 1, 2017
• Last updated: December 18, 2017
• Start date: December 7, 2009
• Est. completion date: June 14, 2016

Study information

• Verified date: December 2017
• Source: University of Oulu
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial 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.

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.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 54
• Est. completion date: June 14, 2016
• Est. primary completion date: December 20, 2014
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: Female
• Age group: N/A and older

Eligibility

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

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Functional Voice Disorder
• Voice Disorders

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Voice therapy
Voice therapy with direct and indirect therapy elements.
• Voice therapy with carryover strategies
Voice therapy with direct and indirect therapy elements and supplementary tasks and reminders.

Other:
• Control group
No therapy during eight weeks. After the control period half of the group will be provided with Voice therapy and half with Voice therapy with carryover strategies.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
n/a

Sponsors (5)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Oulu	Oulu University Hospital, Sonvox AB, Umeå University, University of Tampere

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	The change of the well-being of the teachers' voice.	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).	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).