Abstract
ABSTRACT Objective: to characterize speech-language pathologists/audiologists and their interventions in the occupational health area, regarding the Hearing Prevention Program (HPP). Methods: a cross-sectional, quantitative study with 74 speech-language pathologists/audiologists from several regions of Brazil, working in the areas of Occupational Health and Audiology. The participants answered a questionnaire on their professional and educational profile, as well as on their work related to the HCP components. For data analysis, statistical procedures were used (Chi-Square Test and the test of difference in proportions, at the significance level of 0.05 - 5%), in relation to the variables of gender, age, job position, time since their graduation and academic training in occupational safety and health. Results: the speech-language pathologists/audiologists, mostly women, who reported performing the HPP, were older than 30 years, had specific postgraduate courses, but still had doubts about the Program implementation, they worked for companies with over 1,000 employees, disregarding their employment status, performing interventions, such as: hearing management and guidance on the correct use of ear protectors. Conclusion: a high number of speech-language pathologists in the Occupational Health area have not developed a complete hearing conservation program to this date.
Highlights
Speech-language pathologists/audiologists’ education in Brazil has considerably advanced in the past decades
Audiology has a straight correlation to Occupational Health, once, historically, the labor market requires speech-language pathologists to conduct hearing assessment of workers exposed to high noise levels, according to legal requirements since the 1980s3
Non-probabilistic sampling was used to select the participants in the study, and the research subjects were reached by means of three different strategies, at different times, as follows: 1st) invitation sent by the Regional Council of Speech-Language Pathology/ Audiology (3rd Region – Paraná and Santa Catarina States) to speech-language pathologists/audiologists; if they accepted the invitation, they received the Free Informed Consent Form, and answered the questionnaire; 2nd) invitation on a site of a specific group of speech-language pathologists on Occupational Audiology
Summary
Speech-language pathologists/audiologists’ education in Brazil has considerably advanced in the past decades. Audiology has a straight correlation to Occupational Health, once, historically, the labor market requires speech-language pathologists to conduct hearing assessment of workers exposed to high noise levels, according to legal requirements since the 1980s3. According to the Resolution of the Federal SpeechLanguage Pathology Board[4], speech-language pathologists/audiologists, who work in the Occupational Health area, must monitor, identify and intervene the factors that may determine occupational health hazards. They should diagnose hearing health conditions, and conduct preventive interventions, guided by workers’ fully-delivered health care[5,6]. The authors, in the current study, decided to use the expression “Hearing Prevention Program”, according to the NIOSH and Brazilian authors’ recommendations for the use of the terms “prevention” or “preservation”[3,4,6]
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