An interdisciplinary approach to teachers' voice disorders and psychosocial working conditions.

OBJECTIVES The goals of this epidemiological paper are focused on studying teachers' vocal complaints, their voice pattern, and the impact of voice disorders on psychosocial working conditions. PATIENTS A representative stratified random sample of 282 teachers from kindergartens and elementary schools was studied. Two types of self-report questionnaires were applied: an inquiry about teachers' occupational voice profile, and the adapted Spanish version of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (ISTAS-21). Pearson's chi(2) test was performed to search for statistical associations. RESULTS 62.7% of subjects were experiencing occupational voice disorders; these teachers showed significantly worse psychosocial conditions than their healthy voice colleagues. CONCLUSIONS Occupational voice disorders affect more than 60% of teachers and have an impact on their psychosocial working conditions. Interdisciplinary work is essential to shed light on these multifactor mechanisms and effects.