PURPOSE: to delineate the profile of patients registered and attended by a Speech Therapy sector in a public service at Recife. METHODS: the study was conducted from the collection and analysis of data concerning the origin of referral, age, gender, speech complaints of children, adolescents, adults and elderly, collected from the records of initial interviews. The sample consisted of all individuals registered in the sector of Speech Therapy in a public service at the city of Recife, from July 2007 to May 2008. RESULTS: from 251 patients attending the sector of Speech Therapy in a public service at Recife, 12 were excluded from the search because three were discharged and nine have not had full data. In the tested records, there was a greater number of referral performed by Pediatricians (25%), then Otorhinolaryngologist (16%) and General Clinical (10%), with the majority of males (61%), aged from 0 to 11-year old. According to the complaints, the most frequent was phonological diversion (14%), followed by language delay (11%), disfluency (10%) and oral respirator (8%). Regarding the number of complaints, 72% had one complaint, 25% had two complaints and 2% had three associated complaints. CONCLUSIONS: this research showed that the profile seen in the sector of spech therapy of a public service in the city of Recife, although varied, is mostly male, guided by pediatricians, with change of voice, age from 0 to 11-year old, often featuring a single speech therapy complaint.
Primary Health Care; Public Health; Public Sector; Health Services; Rehabilitation
