On the basis of 795 responses to a questionnaire, socio-economic aspects of laryngectomized patients were investigated chiefly in relation to the pre-operative occupations. The pre-operative occupations were classified into 14 groups: technical profession (TEC), teaching and religious work (TEA), medical and co-medical profession (MED), art (ART), management and administration (MAN), office work (OFF), sales (SAL), agriculture, forestry, fishery, mining and quarrying (AGR), transportation and electric communication (TRA), hand work and machine operation (HAN), security (SEC), service (SER), others (OTH), and no occupation (NON). The results were summarized as follows: (1) The occupations which required frequent vocal use were TEA, SAL, SER and MAN. (2) Regardless of the preoperative occupation, many persons used their voice less frequently after laryngectomy. This tendency was particularly significant for TEA, SER, SAL, OFF, MAN and SEC. (3) The rate of success in learning to speak was high for TEC, MAN, TRA, SER and SAL, whereas it was low for NON and OTH. (4) Post-operative inconvenience and/or problems were particularly great for ART, SEC, TEA and SER. (5) Post-operative decrease in income was frequent in persons of ART, TEA, SER and OTH. (6) Many persons, especially those in the ART, OFF, OTH and TRA groups were not able to continue in their preoperative occupation.
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