Treatment for Teachers With Vocal Fatigue

East Tennessee State University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Vocal Fatigue; Treatment

Treatments: Behavioral: Cardiovascular Conditioning Protocol; Other: Voice Production Exercises

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04486989

0819.1s-ETSU (Other Identifier)

1R15DC017014-01A1

Details and patient eligibility

About

Teachers are a population at high risk for voice disorders given their occupational demands. In a teaching career, a common debilitating symptom among all vocal symptoms experienced is - vocal fatigue, impacting teachers' occupational performance and increasing health care costs. It is therefore essential to identify potential treatment options to alleviate the symptom of vocal fatigue. The purpose of this study is to utilize a body-system level cardiovascular training protocol in comparison to traditional voice production training to alleviate the symptoms of vocal fatigue.

Enrollment: 31 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 21 to 60 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Female teachers between the ages of 21-60 years Female instructors and college professors between the ages of 21-60 years
• A score of ≥ 15 on factor 1 of the VFI (tiredness and avoidance of voice use) or a score of ≤ 5 on factor 3 of the VFI (improvement of symptoms or lack thereof with rest)
• Sedentary- wherein participants will need to be completing mild intensity cardiovascular exercise less than 150 minutes in less than 5 days per week

Exclusion criteria

• Trained athletes
• Trained singers
• Smoking in the past 6months
• Prior history of a vocal fold pathology and current vocal fold pathology

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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31 participants in 2 patient groups

Cardiovascular Conditioning Protocol

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will complete a sub maximal cardiovascular training program twice per week for a period of 4 weeks.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Cardiovascular Conditioning Protocol

Voice Production Exercises

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants will complete voice production exercises twice per week for a period of 4 weeks.

Treatment:

Other: Voice Production Exercises