THE VALUE and IMPORTANCE of SUBJECTIVE TESTS for EVALUATING PROFESSIONAL VOICE USERS' VOICES in OUR COUNTRY
Marmara Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi , KBB, İstanbul, Türkiye Introduction:In this study, the voice quality of 150 people who are professional voice users without any application to Ear Nose Throat Clinic (ENT) due to voice problems has been evaluated with perceptual tests.
Material method:
Teachers, sales people, musical academy students, policemen, religion related workers (priests/imams) and secretaries groups of 25 each that have never applied to ENT Clinic due to voice problems have been chosen and asked to evaluate themselves for Voice Handicap Index (VHI). The voice quality of these individuals have been evaluated through GRBAS system by the same ENT specialist and the results have been investigated to determine whether there are any correlations between the two subjective tests.
Result:
Voice disorders have been determined on the professional voice users who never applied to ENT Clinic due to voice problems. In addition, this study showed that there is an average rank of correlation between the VHI and GRBAS which reflect the subjective evaluations of the patients and the voice professionals accordingly (r=0.74).
Discussion and Conclusion:
It is concluded that in our country, the professional voice users do not request medical help if they do not have advanced problem. It is thought that the professional voice users have to be educated more to recognize their voice problems at the early stages by means of subjective tests and should apply for professional medical help before the problems progress further.