PURPOSE: to evaluate vocal quality and voice-related quality of life in 1st to 5th grade female teachers, to check vocal self-assessment, and to correlate those findings. METHOD: an observational cross-sectional study on the correlation with seventy-three 1st to 5th grade teachers in state public elementary schools in the city of Maceió/AL. An objective questionnaire was used in order to characterize the said sample. An auditory perceptual analysis of the voices was conducted and the voice-related quality of life questionnaire (V-RQOL) was administered. The sample was described by using descriptive statistics. The Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was used to assess the correlation among auditory perceptual analysis, self-assessment, and voice-related quality of life scores. RESULTS: teachers suffered from moderate vocal deviation in sustained phonation and mild to moderate deviation in connected speech. Most teachers deemed their voices to be good (37%) and acceptable (43.8%). As to vocal complaints, hoarseness was the most cited (91.8%). Total scores for V-RQOL showed moderate impact of the voice on quality of life, and only the vocal self-assessment issue had any correlation to V-RQOL scores. V-RQOL domains showed significant correlations amongst themselves. CONCLUSION: the population in the study suffered from vocal deviation and its impact on quality of life, although most of them were pleased with their voices. Nothing, but the vocal assessment topic had any correlation with the V-RQOL scores, implying that the worse is the vocal self-assessment, the worse is the voice-related quality of life scores.
Public Health; Voice; Faculty; Occupational Health; Quality of Life
