Encuesta sobre salud vocal en cantantes. Síntomas, hábitos y conocimiento de higiene vocal

Abstract

Backgrounds and objective

Singers depend greatly on their voice and any impairment of the phonatory system can harm their vocal health, well-being and professional performance. The main objective of this study is to analyze differences between singers with and without vocal pathology in terms of vocal symptoms, vocal hygiene-related behaviors, and knowledge of factors involved in vocal health.

Materials and method

To carry out this research, a sample of 43 singers has been collected and different aspects have been analyzed through an ad-hoc survey.

Results

The results show that vocal symptoms such as “difficulty reaching high notes” (62.8%), “loss of vocal flexibility” (58.1%) and “dryness in the throat” (55.8%) were those most frequently experienced by singers. Respondents with vocal pathology (VP) presented the symptoms “dryness in the throat”, “loss of flexibility” and “vocal fatigue” with a significantly higher frequency than singers without vocal pathology (NVP). A high percentage of participants with VP identified aspects such as emotional stress (83.3%) and speaking during laryngitis (87.5%) as harmful to their voice, but more than half were unaware of the negative effect of throat clearing, whispering and reflux.

Conclusions

It can be concluded that the vocal health of singers is characterized by a high prevalence of vocal symptoms and limited knowledge about vocal hygiene.