PURPOSE:
to investigate and correlate the responses to the questionnaires Voice Related Quality of Life and Voice Handicap Index, according to age, gender, occupational and non occupational use of voice and phonoaudiological diagnosis.
METHODS:
analysis of responses to questionnaires Voice Related Quality of Life and Voice Handicap Index from the records of 48 subjects, 41 women and 7 men, aged between 18 and 63 years old; six occupational voice users and 42 non occupational; 39 subjects with functional dysphonia, 6 with organic dysphonia and 3 with organic-functional dysphonia. Chi-square test and Spearman correlation coefficient (p=0.05).
RESULTS:
regarding the Voice Related Quality of Life questionnaire, there was a significant association between gender and emotional score, age and emotional score; occupation and total score, emotional and physical. Regarding the Voice Handicap Index, there was a significant association between gender and emotional score, age and physical and emotional score; phonoaudiological diagnosis and emotional score; occupation and functional score. There was a positive correlation between aspects of each protocol separately and negative correlation between the scores of the questionnaires.
CONCLUSION
: in the studied group, it was found higher quality of life for female; decreased quality of life and increasing voice handicap with increasing age; presence of organo-functional dysphonia generated greater voice handicap; professionals of voice had a poorer quality of life and greater voice handicap. The protocols used showed complementary and useful results to measure the impact of a dysphonia on subjects quality of life.
Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences; Voice; Quality of Life; Voice Disorders; Dysphonia
