Colombian College Professors Work-Related Health: Associations Between Stress and Voice Acoustics Parameters

Introduction. Teachers have a high risk of developing voice disorders and high-stress levels due to their working conditions. Moreover, stress causes changes at a physiological level in different systems such as the cardiac, gastrointestinal, and respiratory systems. In the latter, the rate of airflow is increased producing significant changes in the acoustic parameters of the voice. Methods. An exploratory, correlational, longitudinal study was conducted to investigate the association between perceived stress and three acoustic parameters related to voice perturbation and harmonicity (jitter, shimmer, and harmonics-to-noise ratio) among college professors. The study also aimed to explore potential changes in this association over the follow-up period. Twenty-four college professors participated in the study. Participants completed a questionnaire that gathered information on socio-demographic characteristics, working conditions, and stress perception. Voice samples were collected from each participant and subjected to acoustic analysis using Praat software. To examine the associations between stress levels and the acoustic parameters, generalized linear models (GLM) with a gamma distribution were employed. Results. We found that professors with low stress levels had increased jitter and shimmer values; whereas participants with moderate and high stress levels had increased harmonics-to-noise ratio values compared to those with a lower stress level. Conclusions. Stress has an important effect on voice perturbation and harmonicity parameters. These results justify the design of interdisciplinary workplace interventions for voice disorders among teachers that include activities on stress management.