Voice disorders and occupations

TLDR

The study collected data on 1,212 working‑age voice patients over six months from eight Swedish phoniatrics departments, recording diagnosis, occupation, sex, and age. Phonasthenia was the most frequent diagnosis, with teachers, social workers, lawyers, and clergymen disproportionately represented and women twice as common as men, underscoring the need for enhanced preventive voice care in these professions.

Abstract

Information on diagnosis, occupation, sex and age of new voice patients seen during a period of six months during 1992–93 were reported from the eight hospital departments of phoniatrics in Sweden. Data from altogether 1212 patients of working age were obtained. Phonasthenia was by far the most common diagnosis. Teaching professions were more common than any other occupational group. There were twice as many women as men seeking phoniatric care for voice problems. When a comparison was made with data from the Swedish Population and Housing Census 1990, it turned out that among the voice patients the teaching professions were clearly overrepresented, and so were social workers, lawyers and clergymen. The need for improved preventive voice care in the training programmes for these professions is quite clear.