ABSTRACT:
Purpose:
to characterize and relate the vocal, occupational and general health profile of elementary school teachers from Santa Maria/RS.
Methods:
observational analytical cross-sectional study of quantitative character. The sample consisted by 127 teachers (average age of 38.25 years-old) who responded to a questionnaire and underwent hearing screening, perceptual voice assessment and acoustic analysis.
Results:
average of 7,03h/day of teaching; work as a teacher for 13,13 years on average; high occurrence of vocal complaints and there was no reports of respiratory disorders, alcoholism and smoking habits; most showed no disorders in the auditory perceptual parameters; the acoustic analysis presented disorders in measures of disturbance frequency, the amplitude and noise; the teachers who have submitted complaints vocals had daily workload higher than those that did not show; teachers with vocal complaints presented significant changes in measurement of the fundamental frequency variation (jitter); and it was found a statistically significant relationship between respiratory disorders and the measurement of the relative average frequency disturbance (jitter).
Conclusion:
there is high occurrence of vocal complaints among elementary school teachers, and these were related with the high workload and acoustic measures of jitter, which also presented relation to the related respiratory disorders.
Keywords:
Epidemiology; Dysphonia; Occupational Health; Voice
