- Females face significant higher risk of long-term vocal problems
- Reduced lung capabilities put women at higher risk of hoarseness
- Scientists find women can’t inhale and exhale as much air as men
- Vocal fatigue is twice as common in teaching compared to other jobs
Stephen Matthews For Mailonline
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Women teachers are more likely to suffer from a croaky voice than men because of their ‘weaker’ lungs, new research has found.
Voice problems are an occupational hazard for teachers as they spend most of the day talking and often have to raise their voices to be heard over the din of the classroom.
This strain results in them suffering twice the rate of voice fatigue – which includes symptoms such as hoarseness, vocal tiredness, muscle pains and lost or cracked notes – as other professions.
Voice injuries to teachers cost an estimated $2.5bn (£1.7bn) a year, potentially harming students’ education
The reason women struggle more in the classroom is because they have a reduced lung capacity compared to men, scientists found.
In an experiment using lung-measurement tests on a small group of teachers, they discovered women weren’t able to inhale and exhale as much air as men
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Study author Dr Eric Hunter at Michigan State, said: ‘Our study is the first to connect voice fatigue problems with gender-based physiological differences in lung functions, pointing to respiratory function as a source of the gender inequality in voice problems.
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‘Females teachers are particularly at risk of developing voice problems, affecting teaching quality and leading to increased teacher absenteeism, increased health care costs and sometimes even early retirement.
Teachers’ voice disorders also hamper students’ learning, especially for those students with learning or hearing difficulties,’ he said.
It is estimated teachers’ voice injuries cost the US an estimated $2.5billion per year (£1.7bn) with scientists desperate to find a cure for preventing vocal illnesses.
The study was built on previous research seven years ago which suggested a link between vocal health problems and unhealthy lungs.
It explores this link through a study of 122 primary and secondary school teachers through the teachers’ Vocal Fatigue Index scores and lung capacity tests.
The Vocal Fatigue Index is a standardised survey tool that can help identify individuals with vocal fatigue and characterise their complaints.
Female teachers face a much higher risk of having long-term vocal problems due to their weaker lungs
Scientists discovered that the lung function of women in the amount of air they inhale and exhale was linked to getting voice fatigue.
Preventing voice fatigue could be as simple and cheap as using a a spirometer, the same device used to assess asthma and other breathing problems.
It is a simple test in which the patient blows into a small device, measuring how much air you can breathe out in one forced breath.
But doctors are working to find out the actual cause of vocal fatigue, which is difficult to diagnose as vocal cords often look normal when inspected.
Further studies are set to explore other underlying risk factors for vocal problems, such as stress and hormones.
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