PURPOSE: To relate data regarding gender, age and length of time on the job with voice symptoms and the results of vocal evaluation of teleservice operators. METHODS: A quantitative retrospective analysis was carried with 404 medical records regarding periodic evaluations of employees from bank institutions with owned headquarters contained in the files of a company of occupational medicine, 259 women, 145 men, with ages between 18 and 53 years (mean 30.48). The study had a descriptive exploratory design. RESULTS: Women presented greater quantity of voice symptoms (mean 1.69) and voice alterations (n=33; 12.7%) than men (mean 1.12; n=6; 4.1%). No difference was found between the amount of voice symptoms and the auditory-perceptive evaluation when related to age and length of time on the job. Employees with neutral voices (n=365; 90.35%) presented lesser symptoms (1.41) than employees with non-neutral voices (n=39; 9.65%; mean 2.21). Thirty-four (87.2%) of the 39 employees with non-neutral quality of voice presented laryngopharyngeal resonance, and 21 (53.8%) presented low pitch. Operators with moderate voice alteration presented increased loudness when compared to the operators with discreet alteration. CONCLUSION: Women present greater rate of voice symptoms and disorders. There is no relationship between the increase of age and length of time performing teleoperator functions with the increase of the number of symptoms and vocal alterations. Alterations of pitch, loudness and resonance are related to alterations on the quality of voice.
Voice; Voice quality; Voice disorders; Occupational diseases; Answering services
