Vocal Tract Discomfort and Potential Related Factors in Teachers During Virtual Teaching

The present study aimed to investigate vocal tract discomfort (VTD) symptoms and describe possible related factors following virtual teaching (VT).

The participants included 189 elementary school teachers, with a mean age of 41.41 years. They completed an online questionnaire that included the VTD scale and three main sections: 1) job information, 2) voice history, and 3) history of COVID-19. We extracted the frequency and severity of VTD symptoms and examined the relation of various factors with them.

A cross-sectional study.

The mean of VTD frequency and severity subscales were 10.58 (±10.59) and 10.39 (±10.63), respectively. The highest frequency and severity symptom was "dry" with an average of 2.01 (±1.85) and 1.95 (±1.81), respectively. The "inflammation" showed the lowest frequency (1.02 ± 1.41) and the "aching" indicated the lowest severity (1.03 ± 1.47). Some factors, including disturbing environmental conditions during VT, technical issues created during VT, voice self-assessment, vocal complaints, vocal habits, voice or larynx problems at the time of the study, and history of COVID-19 and following voice problem had significant relation with the frequency and severity of VTDp (P < 0.05).

This study indicates that VT does not significantly relate with the discomfort sensations experienced in the vocal tract by teachers. However, certain issues arising from VT or Coronavirus infection and some factors related to voice history were associated with the experience of VTD. If these secondary problems are addressed and teachers are trained to manage their voice habits effectively, they may experience less VTD.