Disfonia em professores municipais: aspectos clínicos, ocupacionais e de qualidade de vida

Abstract

Introduction: Dysphonia is a communication disorder characterized by difficulty in vocal production that causes an impediment in the production of natural voice. Voice work is conceptualized as a form of oral communication used by people who depend on them to exercise their occupational activity. Thus, the disorder related to vocal work is presented as any vocal changes directly related to the use of voice during the professional activity that diminishes, compromise or impede the performance and / or provision of the worker. The teacher is considered voice professional because it depends on certain production and / or voice quality specific to your professional survival. This research combines a study of the profile of teachers with a clinical diagnosis of dysphonia in a study that examines the impact of voice on the quality of life. Objectives: To describe the socio-demographic, occupational, health and voice parameters of dysphonic teachers, examining the impact of voice on the quality of life and to assess the degree of dysphonia and speech pathology and otolaryngologic diagnoses are correlated with quality of life. Methods: Was agreed two strategies: 1) data collection socio-demographic, occupational, and general voice of 217 teachers met through an appropriate protocol, 2) evaluation of the correlation between the clinical data with the vocal quality of life of 88 teachers through specific tests. The sample consisted of teachers from the Municipal School of Belo Horizonte with a clinical diagnosis of dysphonia, admitted in Speech Pathology Unit, Hospital das Clínicas, Federal University of Minas Gerais. For the group of 217 teachers were assessed in (a) socio-demographic factors: gender, age, education, number of children, total household income per month, (b) organization of work: who teaches year, levels which teaches, hours weekly class, duration of the break between classes, number of students in the classroom, (c) working environment: noise, air pollution, water availability, (d) vocal habits: use of voice, drinking water and guidance vocal (e) Health: medicine for depression, medication reflux, allergy, removal related to voice, (f) evaluation vocal: proprioceptive symptoms, self-perception of severity vocal, vocal deviation and ENT diagnosis, which are collected from August 2008 to December 2009. While the study involving 88 teachers were analyzed the following variables: quality of life related to voice, musical vocal deviation, Speech-Pathology and the Otorhinolaryngological (ORL) diagnostics, which are collected from August 2007 to May 2008. We conducted descriptive analysis and the Spearman correlation coefficient. Results: Was studied 217 teachers, most with more than 45 years (38.7%), teaching for over 11 years (60.3%), load exceeding 23 hours weekly (61.3%). Regarding the environment, we highlight the report of noise nuisance (48%) and vocal demands constant ("talk much"). We found high scores of self-perceived severity of vocal, vocal deviation and slight presence of mass lesion in the vocal fold. There were no statistically significant relationships between the diagnosis of Speech-Pathology and Otorhinolaryngological and degree of vocal deviation with the values of the parameters of quality of life received by the VAPP. Conclusions: These findings contribute to knowledge about clinical voice and its impact on quality of life related to voice teachers. Finally, we suggest measures for promoting vocal health in schools.