PURPOSE: to verify knowledge about stuttering among residents of the city of Salvador. METHOD: this research is descriptive, cross sectional and quantitative with the voluntary participation of residents of the city of Salvador. They answered the questionnaire Attention to Stuttering and were matched in terms of gender, age and education. RESULTS: of the 417 people interviewed 78.2% claimed to have seen or known people who stutter, 52.2% reported that the person who stuttered belonged to their circle of acquaintances, 62.4% believed that more than 5% of the population stutter; 53.6% responded that stuttering begins between the ages two and five years old; 53.5% reported that stuttering occurs more often in boys than in girls, 88.7% reported that this disorder occurs in all races, 28.9% reported that its cause is psychological; 84.2% stated that stuttering has treatment, 79.6% consider people who stutter with intelligence equal to that of normal speakers, 47.6% stated that use of hearing aids is worse than stuttering and 52.8% responded that would consult a speech language therapist. CONCLUSION: the population of the city of Salvador who answered the questionnaire easily identified people with stuttering, but demonstrated limited knowledge about the issues associated with it. This is a relevant factor for planning public education and health actions.
Stuttering; Public Opinion; Knowledge; Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences
