Voice Ergonomics Assessment in the Work Environment
Anna Accornero, Raffaella Citro, Angelica Trovarelli, Irene Vernero
The scientific contributions produced by the «Nordic Voice Ergonomic Group», Reykjavík 2005, constitute the scientific corpus on which Eeva Sala, together with a group of well-known speech and language pathologist colleagues, undertook the elaboration of a Voice Ergonomics Assessment manual in the work environment (Sala et al., 2009). The aim of this paper is to provide occupational medicine professionals with a valuable tool to easily carry out voice ergonomics assessment as part of their activities. The manual and the voice ergonomics assessment tables enable the systematic observation of risk factors and, where necessary, their measurement and recording. The goal is the prevention of work-correlated voice disorders with recipients mainly among voice professionals, teachers, who represent one of the most at-risk categories as regards the vocal cords. In this regard, there are many concordant studies. Among the most detailed is Belhau, Zambon, & Madazio (2014). The Brazilian data, in addition, agree with the USA set, where the vocal symptoms detected are highly correlated with professional use, with a prevalence of 63% (Roy et al., 2004a, 2004b). When the voice is a work tool, the physical environment where the worker operates is the main condition for multiple risk factors: noise and sound conditions, acoustics, indoor air quality, work posture, working methods and working spaces, and the lack of necessary aids. The manual and the voice ergonomics assessment tables contain modules for observation, problem solving and next step planning, making it possible for the speech and language pathologist to be an active part in the necessary consultations.
Keywords
Voice ergonomics, Work-related dysphonia, Ergonomic tables, Occupational medicine, Occupational risk.