Presentation at 11° Corso Internazionale di Foniatria e Logopedia - La Voce Artistica 2017 (Ravenna, Italy)

1. Prevalence of voice disorders in
Portuguese Fado singers: preliminary results
Pedro Melo Pestana (PM Pestana) 1,2
Susana Vaz Freitas (S Vaz Freitas) 2,3
Maria Conceição Manso (MC Manso) 2, 4, 5
1 PMP terapia – Esposende - Portugal
2 University Fernando Pessoa - Faculty of Health Sciences – Porto – Portugal
3 Speech Pathology Unit of Otolaryngology Service – Centro Hospitalar do Porto - Portugal
4 Fernando Pessoa Energy, Environment and Health Research Unit (FP-ENAS), University Fernando Pessoa
5 LAQV, REQUIMTE, University of Porto - Portugal

2. Introduction
• Fado is an urban folk music from Portugal
• Origins in Brazil as a dance
• Substyles: Lisboa VS Coimbra
• Some acoustical and performance measures are different from
other music styles (Mendes et al, 2013; Kahle, 2012)
• No previous clinical study was found
411 live singers ??
(Pestana et al, 2017)
Ana Pinhal, António Reis

3. Aim
Provide estimates of the prevalence of voice
disorders in Fado singers
411 singersPopulation (Pestana et al, 2017)
199 singers
63 singers
Expected sample (95% CI)
Sample (until May 2017)
Manuel Barbosa, João Pedro Cardoso

4. Methods
• Cross-sectional survey of 63 active adult Fado singers
• Questionaire through LimeSurvey
• 6 groups; 55 questions
• Convenience and snowball sampling
Augusto Ramos, Acácio Branquinho

6. Results
41.3 %
(SE = 6.2%; 95% CI = 30.0%-53.6%)
Maria de Fátima Couto

7. 203040506070
Age
Male Female
Age and gender

8. 17.46%
38.10%
23.81%
20.63%
010203040
Male Female
Yes No Yes No
Gender and Past Voice Problems (%)
(F: 53.6%; M: 31.4%; Chi2, p=0.076)

9. 30.16%
39.68%
11.11%
19.05%
010203040
<50 >50
Yes No Yes No
Age and Past Voice Problems (%)
(<50-years: 43.2%; ≥50-years: 36.8%; p=0.639)

10. 20.63%
22.22%
20.63%
36.51%
010203040
With training Without training
Yes No Yes No
Singing Training and Past Voice Problems (%)
(With: 48.1%; Without: 36.1%; p=0.337)

11. Fado singers

12. Ultime notizie!
• Until now – 85 singers
• Prevalence decreased – 37.6%
• Age – 40yo (18-72)
• Recordings – 3.85±11.23
• Canceled performances due to voice issues – 1.34 (0-10)
> risk ?
• Performances last month – 14 (0-40)
• Songs in each performance – 9.73 (3-30)
• Almost don’t use amplification - 82.1%
• No singing lessons – 56.5%
• Few singers warm up – 30.5%
• Most have secondary jobs – 55.3%
• Most don’t smoke – 68.2%
• Drink more water during performances – 67.1%

13. Testimonials
“Fatigued due to overwork. Stop one year.”
“Fatigued because I used to sing and to comment soccer.
My ENT advised me to choose one!”
“I totally lost my voice!”

14. 1º VINCITORE! 2º 3º
water | voice exercises | vocal rest | sleep
Common adopted strategies

15. Conclusion
• High prevalence of voice disorders
• Higher prevalence in women
• No relation with age (yet!)
• No relation with singing lessons (yet!)
Next steps…
• (Increase the sample)
• Identify risk/protective factors
• Validate EASE to Portuguese
Paulo Cangalhas

16. References
Kahle, C. (2012) Qualidade vocal e ajustes vocais do cantor de Fado de Coimbra. Universidade Fernando Pessoa.
Mendes, A. P., Rodrigues, A. F. and Guerreiro, D. M. (2013) ‘Acoustic and phonatory characterization of the fado voice’, Journal of Voice,
27(5). doi: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2012.10.008.
Pestana, P. M., Vaz-Freitas, S. and Manso, M. C. (2017) ‘How many fado singers exist in Portugal? Regulation through cultural
entrepreneurship’, in Negas, M. et al. (eds) 7a Conferência Ibérica de Empreendedorismo: Empreender para o Sucesso. Esposende:
Empreend.
Pestana, P. M., Vaz-Freitas, S. and Manso, M. C. (2017) ‘Prevalence of Voice Disorders in Singers: Systematic Review and Meta-
Analysis’, Journal of Voice. doi: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2017.02.010.
Ph.inisheD. !!!
(almost)
Pedro Pestana, Francisco Moreira