Hábitos de higiene vocal en cantantes de los coros polifónicos del cantón Cuenca, septiembre 2022 - febrero 2023

Background: Singers are highly susceptible to suffer vocal pathologies, since they utilize their voice to perform, and require the implementation of vocal hygiene standards, which are based on a set of recommendations to optimize their voice and avoid vocal pathologies. General Objective: To determine vocal hygiene habits that singers of the polyphonic choirs of the canton Cuenca in the year 2022. Methods: The current study implements a descriptive cross-sectional study, with a sample size of 133 polyphonic choir singers from canton Cuenca in the year 2022. A Vocal Awareness Questionnaire for Singers was implemented to understand the vocal hygiene habits utilized and associated risk factors which influence the presentation of vocal pathologies, such as (gender, age, musical education, type of voice, hours sung weekly). The analysis of data was tabulated through SPSS 29 free version, using tables created in Excel 2021 by means of frequencies and percentages. Results: Of the 133 respondents, 73.7% belong to the age group of 18 to 29 years 11 months. 38.3% correspond to the male gender and 61.7% to the female gender; 42.1% of this gender drink water when feeling mucus or phlegm in the throat. 30.1% of the male gender prefer to cough or clear their throat. Participants of this study responded that speaking more frequently with laryngitis, throat clearing, air conditioning, and speaking in noisy environments were associated factors both behaviorally and environmentally on vocal mechanism. Conclusions: It was concluded that the singers of the Polyphonic Choirs of the canton do not elicit optimal vocal hygiene habits.