Factors Predicting Dysphonia in Professional Voice Users

Objective. To analyze the contribution of organizational, environmental, and personal factors in predicting dysphonia in professional voice users. Study Design. This was a cross-sectional documentary study. Methods. The study sample consisted of 128 professional voice users (104 female and 24 male), with a mean age of 39.3 years. Dysphonia (laryngeal disorder associated with vocal complaints) was defined as the dependent variable. Organizational, environmental, and personal factors were defined as independent variables. Logistic regression models were used as predictive methods for data analysis. Evaluation and interpretation of the final model were performed using the ROC curve, odds ratio, and probability estimation. Results. Professional voice users exposed to low humidity and who talked a lot on their phones were less likely to be dysphonic than individuals who were not exposed to these factors. Those exposed to excessive vocal demand and who reported talking with effort were more likely to be dysphonic than those who were not exposed to these factors. The accuracy of the prediction model was 80.8%. Conclusions. Exposure to low humidity and talking a lot on the phone were protective factors. However, excessive vocal demand and straining were risk factors for predicting the presence of dysphonia in professional voice users with high accuracy.