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. 2025 Aug 4;25(1):2639.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-025-23850-6.

Self-reported prevalence and associated factors of work related voice disorders among school teachers in Sekota town, Wag Himra zone, North Ethiopia, 2021: a cross-sectional survey

Alemayehu Kibret Belete  1 , Dawit Getachew Yenealem  2 , Jember Azanaw  1
Affiliations

Self-reported prevalence and associated factors of work related voice disorders among school teachers in Sekota town, Wag Himra zone, North Ethiopia, 2021: a cross-sectional survey

Alemayehu Kibret Belete et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Occupational dysphonia or work-related voice disorders are a common problem among school teachers. Voice-related absenteeism and treatment expenses, the societal costs in the US alone have been estimated to be 2.5 billion dollars annually. Worldwide, many studies have been conducted; however, in Ethiopia, no studies have investigated teachers' voice disorders; with the epidemiology and magnitude of voice problems among Ethiopian teachers still unknown.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate prevalence and associated factors of work-related voice disorders among school teachers in Sekota town wag himra zone, Ethiopia.

Method: Cross-sectional survey was conducted on 586 school teachers who worked in public schools in Sekota town, wag himra zone from April 1 to May 30, 2021. The participants were chosen using a census. A pretested and self-administered Voice Handicap Index-10 (VHI-10) scale questionnaire was used to obtain information on voice disorder and associated factors. Epi-data 4.6 and SPSS version 25 were used for data entry and analysis respectively. Univariate and Multivariate logistic regression analysis was carried out to ascertain the association between dependent and independent variables. 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to identify the factors significantly associated with voice disorder at a p-value ≤ 0.05.

Results: A total of 586 respondents were participated at a response rate of 92.1%. Most of 54.9%, 322/586) of the participants were males. The prevalence of work-related voice disorder among school teachers in the past 12 months was 21% (95% CI, (17.8-24.5), while that in primary school teachers was 24.8%, secondary school teachers was 19.3%, teachers college was 15.7% and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) was 11.5%. Infrequent nasal allergy [AOR:2.74,95% CI, (1.53-4.89)], having nasal allergy sometimes [AOR:5.38,95%CI, (2.10-13.77)], teaching consecutive 5th and 6th class [AOR: 5.64,95%CI(1.62-19.67)], speak over a natural breath cycle[AOR:3.94,95%CI, (1.3-11.90)], rarely drunk alcohol [AOR:6.28,95% CI (2.53-15.6)], sometimes drunk alcohol [AOR;3.27,95% CI (1.32-8.1), taking medications [AOR;9.52,95% CI, (1.82-49.86), stress and anxiety [AOR:2.32,95% CI, (1.04-5.15)], noise from children playing outside [AOR:3.1,95% CI, (1.45-6.43)] were found to be significantly associated factors with work-related voice disorders.

Conclusion: This study concludes that work-related voice disorders are a common occupational hazard among school teachers. Provided most voice problems may be preventable and it can greatly affect their performance and quality of life interventions are paramount. Therefore, we recommend developing prevention programs including preventive voice training and voice hygiene with sanitary work conditions to combat functional voice disorder among school teachers.

Keywords: Dysphonia; Ethiopia; Occupational voice disorders; School teachers; Voice disorder; Work-related voice disorder.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethical approval and consent to participate: The present study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of University of Gondar (IRB No. IPH/15107/2021) and all methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. A formal letter of cooperation was presented to Sekota town administration education office management body and a permission paper was obtained. Before the data collection process was carried out, each respondent was informed about the objective of the study and informed consent were taken from all subjects. The study participants enlightened on how the result will contribute to employers & government in crafting intervention and devising measures to minimize work-related voice disorder. Respondent was involved after they give verbal consent was obtained from each participant. An Anonymous questioner was used and all data collected kept confidentially and only aggregate data were used for interpretation to maintain the confidentiality of the data. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

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