What do we know about voice endurance?

Abstract

Introduction. It is believed that with age, the voice becomes less resistant to voice loads. Among different speech professions, it is the profession of a teacher that most often leads to voice disorders. The main reason contributing to the development of dysphonia in the teachers is the increased voice load.Оbjective. Study age-related changes in voice endurance and to assess the effect on this characteristic of voice loads, taking into account the characteristics of the teaching profession.Materials and methods. The basis of the analysis was 170 people. Of these, 125 volunteers of non-speech professions of different ages from 21 to 83 years old without organic laryngeal pathology (group I) were divided into three age subgroups: young age (40), average age (43), elderly and senile age (42). Group II consisted of 45 females of various kinds of pedagogical activities (kindergarten teachers, school teachers, university teachers). All participants were evaluated for voice endurance by using the specialized program The LingWaves and the voice strain test (VST).Results. It has been found that with age, the endurance of the voice decreases significantly, and to a greater extent in females than in males. Despite long, daily voice loads, the voice of female teachers had greater endurance than that of women in nonspeech professions. At the same time, the volume of voice load and work experience did not significantly affect the voice endurance, in contrast to the nature of pedagogical activity.Conclusions. Among teachers of different professions, it was the kindergarten teachers who demonstrated the worst indicators of VST, which is most likely due to the peculiarities of their work with young children.