Voice Disorder and Burnout Syndrome in Teachers

The objective of this study was to assess the association between burnout syndrome and the likely presence of voice disorders among teachers from a public elementary school in the country town of Sergipe.

This is a cross-sectional study in which 208 teachers completed the following questionnaires: the Condition of Vocal Production-Teacher (CPV-P), the Screening Index for Voice Disorder (SIVD), and the Burnout Syndrome Evaluation Questionnaire (CESQT).

Of the 208 teachers, 76.9% were women, 77.9% came from rural areas, and 64.4% were likely to have a voice disorder. Teachers with a career length of over 15 years were almost twice as likely to have a voice disorder. Of the symptoms listed in the SIVD, the following were most prevalent: dry throat (88.1%), hoarseness (84.4%), and fatigue when speaking (82.1%). Among the burnout subscales, psychic exhaustion was the most common (30.3%). Analyses revealed that probable voice disorder was associated with psychic exhaustion with an odds ratio of 1.78 (P < 0.001, χ2 = 84.1%). Teachers with positive scores on two to four burnout subscales had an odds ratio of 4.01 (P = 0.013, χ2 = 86.2%) for a probable voice disorder compared with those with positive scores on zero to one subscale.

The present results confirmed that burnout syndrome was associated with the presence of a probable voice disorder.