IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i9p3081-d351679.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Relevant Work Factors Associated with Voice Disorders in Early Childhood Teachers: A Comparison between Kindergarten and Elementary School Teachers in Yancheng, China

Author

Listed:
  • Yaping Tao

    (Department of Preschool Education, Yancheng Teachers University, Yancheng 224002, China
    Department of Health Promotion and Health Education, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei 106, Taiwan)

  • Charles Tzu-Chi Lee

    (Department of Health Promotion and Health Education, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei 106, Taiwan)

  • Yih-Jin Hu

    (Department of Health Promotion and Health Education, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei 106, Taiwan)

  • Qiang Liu

    (Department of Preschool Education, Yancheng Teachers University, Yancheng 224002, China)

Abstract

Background: Early childhood teachers consist of kindergarten and elementary school teachers in the lower grades. Young children at school may increase the vocal load of these teachers. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of voice disorders and the associated factors in early childhood teachers, and to determine if differences exist between kindergarten and elementary school teachers. Method: A cross-sectional survey was performed in July 2019 as a network questionnaire. Through cluster sampling, teachers ( n = 414) from all five public kindergartens ( n = 211) in the urban area of Yancheng, China, and four public elementary schools ( n = 203) in the same school district participated in this study. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to analyze the associations among the prevalence of voice disorders in the teachers, school type, and relevant factors. Results: Our results indicated, based on the Voice Handicap Index scale (VHI-10, China), that the prevalence of voice disorders in early childhood teachers was 59.7%, while that in elementary school teachers (65.5%) was significantly higher than that in kindergarten teachers (54.0%) during the previous semester. Contributing factors included daily class hours, classroom air humidity, and speaking loudly during teaching. Additionally, certain types of voice usage in teaching such as falsetto speak, speaking more than other teachers, not using vocal techniques, and habitual voice clearing, were significantly associated with voice disorders. Conclusion: Most early childhood teachers have voice disorders. Compared with the kindergarten teachers, the elementary school teachers experienced a significantly higher prevalence of voice disorders. Several factors among work organization, work environment, and types of voice usage in teaching were associated with the voice disorders in early childhood teachers. The finding suggests that voice training should be provided for early childhood teachers, classroom teaching time should be decreased, and the number of teachers in basic subjects should be increased in the lower grades of elementary schools.

Suggested Citation

  • Yaping Tao & Charles Tzu-Chi Lee & Yih-Jin Hu & Qiang Liu, 2020. "Relevant Work Factors Associated with Voice Disorders in Early Childhood Teachers: A Comparison between Kindergarten and Elementary School Teachers in Yancheng, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-16, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:9:p:3081-:d:351679
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/9/3081/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/9/3081/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Haewon Byeon, 2019. "The Risk Factors Related to Voice Disorder in Teachers: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-14, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. María del Carmen Rey-Merchán & Antonio López-Arquillos, 2022. "Occupational Risk of Technostress Related to the Use of ICT among Teachers in Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-11, July.
    2. Bo-Lei Chen & Ya-Yun Cheng & Cheng-Yu Lin & How-Ran Guo, 2022. "Incidence of Voice Disorders among Private School Teachers in Taiwan: A Nationwide Longitudinal Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-10, January.
    3. Manfred Nusseck & Anna Immerz & Bernhard Richter & Louisa Traser, 2022. "Vocal Behavior of Teachers Reading with Raised Voice in a Noisy Environment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-15, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:9:p:3081-:d:351679. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.