Voice dosimetry and monitoring, with emphasis on professional voice diseases: Critical review and framework for future research

Abstract

Professional voice has become an important issue in the field of occupational health. Similarly, voice diseases related to occupations gain interest in insurance medicine, particularly within the frame of specific insurance systems for occupational diseases. Technological developments have made possible dosimetry of voice loading in the work-place, as well as long-term monitoring of relevant voice parameters during professional activities. A critical review is given, with focus on the specificity of occupational voice use and on the point of view of insurance medicine. Remaining questions and suggestions for future research are proposed.

Key words::

• APM
• insurance medicine
• professional voice
• voice dosimetry
• voice monitoring

Note

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Notes

The Speech Transmission Index (STI) is a measure of speech transmission quality. It measures some physical characteristics of a transmission channel (a room, electro-acoustic equipment, a telephone line, etc.) and expresses its ability to carry the characteristics of a speech signal. The Rapid Speech Transmission Index (RASTI) was designed to be much faster than the original STI, taking less than 30 seconds instead of 15 minutes for a measuring point. However, RASTI was only intended for pure room acoustics.