Voice Activity and Participation Profile Presenting Coordinates for Readjustment of Preventive Action of Educators

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the perception of voice impairment in professional and social contexts, to correlate these data with existing data in the literature, and to explore the perception of voice problems and the adherence to vocal health programs. Method: 502 Brazilian educators working in municipal public schools responded to the Voice Activity and Participation Profile (VAPP) questionnaire. Then a correlation was made with previous results in the literature dealing with a dysphonic and a nondysphonic group. Results: The VAPP data showed that self-perception of voice problems had a higher vocal impact on daily communication and lower scores for activity limitation and participation restriction. The educators’ scores were closer to those of the nondysphonic group with regard to daily and social communication, and emotional and activity limitation, but perception of the voice problem was closest to that of the dysphonic group. Nevertheless, the opposite was the case for participation restriction. Conclusions: The educators perceive vocal problems but do not perceive participation restriction to the same extent. This may explain the decreasing participation in the Vocal Health Program. It probably occurs because adults voluntarily apply for training when they feel that their work performance needs to improve so that they can carry out their job properly.