Evaluating the Impact of Vocal Health Education on Mask-wearing Workers During COVID-19

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The purpose of this clinical trial is to understand how viewing educational health modules impacts vocal health behaviors in mask-wearing healthcare workers.

Detailed Description
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Results of the investigators' previous work showed that mask-wearing healthcare workers have difficulty with voice and communication. Healthcare workers reported significant increases in vocal effort and dyspnea while wearing masks, and showed greater effort and poorer vocal quality at the end of the workday compared to the beginning of the day. Despite these negative changes, very few healthcare workers reported using any type of communication strategy (e.g., taking breaks, using gestures). Therefore, the investigators developed educational modules to address the voice and communication problems facing this population. This clinical trial plans to evaluate how these educational modules impact subjective/objective voice and communication measures in mask-wearing healthcare workers.

Official Title
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Developing Educational Modules to Improve Communication and Vocal Health Among Mask-wearing Healthcare Workers: Phase 2 of the COVID-19 Critical Community Challenge Grant

Conditions
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Health Behavior

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Educational Vocal Health Modules


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: English Speaker Occupational voice user who is required to wear a mask at work Exclusion Criteria: History of neurological disorder or disease History of head/neck cancer Current speech, language, voice, or hearing problem/disorder Currently sick or have been sick within the last 14 days, or is waiting on a COVID-19 test result

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Prevention
Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Mask-wearing healthcare workers<br>All participants in this arm will view the educational health modules and their subjective/objective outcomes will be measure pre/post module viewing. | Behavioral: Educational Vocal Health Modules<br>* We have developed four educational health modules (total duration of approximately 30 minutes). First, these modules explain how masks impact communication and voice, then they describe health strategies to improve communication and voice, and finally, they give real-life examples of how the strategies can be implemented into the work setting.<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Change in amount of Vocal Effort after 1 week | A self-perceptual rating of voice exertion and how hard it is to make a voice. The vocal effort scale will be rated on a 100-mm visual analog scale in which the left side (score of 0) indicates no effort to produce a voice, and the right side (score of 100) indicates the most effort to create a voice. | Assessed prior to module viewing and again 1-week later | 
| Learning of Health Information | Answer questions about the content of the module (short answer, multiple choice, true/false) | Assessed immediately after viewing the modules | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Change in Relative fundamental frequency | An acoustic measure that characterizes change in fundamental frequency during voicing transitions. Participants will complete vowel-voiceless consonant-vowel combinations (e.g., /ifi/) and relative fundamental frequency will be determined. | Assessed prior to viewing modules, and then 1-week later | 
| Module Information Retention | Answer question about the content of the modules (short answer, multiple choice, true/false) | Assessed at second session | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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voice, communication