PURPOSE: to identify the self-reported vocal habits of elementary and high-school teachers, and their correlation to the self-reported presence of hoarseness, strain when speaking, dry throat and presence of vocal disorders. METHODS: 88 teachers from two public elementary and high schools of the city of Sorocaba answered the CPV-P questionnaire (Ferreira et al. 2007), made up of 84 questions. Data selected from this document to be used in this study were: functional situation, vocal aspects and lifestyle (habits) factors. For the statistical analysis the dependant variables were: reports of voice disorders, hoarseness, strain when speaking and dry throat. The independent variables were gender, age, functional situation, and habits related to vocal use. The statistical analysis was performed using STATA 8.0 software, employing the association test (chi-squared) with p < 0.05. RESULTS: 64.77% of the subjects self-reported vocal disorder, 54.55% strain when speaking, 53.41% dry throat, and 44.32% reported hoarseness. As far as vocal habits, 86.52% reported speaking excessively, 59.55% speak in open spaces, 50.56% reported yelling, 28.41% smoking, 28.09% speak while carrying heavy loads and 22.73% reported ingestion of alcohol. However, 67.42% report sparing their voices and 75.28% ingest water during vocal use. CONCLUSION: the most frequently self-reported habits were excessive speaking, speaking in open spaces and yelling. Among the variables, it was possible to observe an association between self-reported vocal disorder and being a woman and excessive speaking; between strain when speaking and being a woman of older age; and between dry throat and older age.
Faculty; Voice Disorders; Risk Factors
