Muslim Religious Officials Have Less Voice Training and Higher Rate of Voice Disorder Than Christian Religious Officials.

Purpose: To compare the Voice Handicap Index-10 Scores, voice hygiene habits, and voice training of Christian and Muslim religious officials living in Turkiye.

Method: In this study, a mixed method, including quantitative and qualitative research, was used. The population of the research consists of Christian and Muslim religious officials working in Turkiye.

Sample: a total of 40 participants, including 20 Muslim religious officials, 15 imam-hatips, and 5 muezzin-trustees, determined by random sampling method, and 20 Christian religious officials, 15 priests and 5 ministers, determined by snowball sampling method were included.

Results: There was a statistically significant difference in the total scores of the Voice Handicap Index-10 scale between Muslim and Christian religious officials. There was no statistically significant difference between Muslim religious officials and Christian religious officials in terms of whether they had a voice disorder before starting their profession, Muslim religious officials had a significantly higher rate of voice disorders than Christian religious officials after they started their profession. It was observed that there was no statistically significant difference between Muslim religious officials and Christian religious officials in terms of daily water, tea, coffee, and tobacco use. All of the Christian religious officials and some of the Muslim religious officials have received musical education at some point in their lives.

Conclusion: On the basis of Voice Handicap Index-10 scores and voice hygiene habits evaluation, Muslim religious officials have higher rate of voice disorder than Christian religious officials. Regarding voice training evaluation, Muslim religious officials had less voice training, as they did not include voice and music education in their vocational education curriculum, while Christian religious officials received both.