Risk of dysphonia and voice quality in performing arts students.

Only 38 students from one Performing Arts course were studied, so the findings may not apply to other acting schools or more experienced actors. The study measured students at one time point, so it cannot show that another voice-using occupation or professional acting caused or prevented voice changes. The actor-specific risk questionnaire had no defined cutoff for high risk, so its scores are harder to interpret than the general questionnaire. Voice assessment was limited to the general degree of deviation from auditory perceptual rating; other GRBASI aspects, acoustic measures, and laryngeal examination were not done. Students with communication or task-performance limitations were excluded, and participants who volunteered may have been more aware of voice problems, so the sample may not represent all students. Time of professional acting was not measured, so the association between professional acting and milder alteration cannot be interpreted as a dose-response or protective effect. Inter-evaluator agreement for the vowel task was moderate (0.53), although intra-evaluator reliability was excellent for one examiner and moderate for the other.

Do not read a high dysphonia risk score as proof that the student's voice sounds worse. The study found that risk scores were similar for students with mild voice alteration and students with moderate or severe alteration.