BACKGROUND: health surveys make up an efficient approach for population researches, and this methodology is not widely diffused among Brazilian audiologists and speech-language pathologists. In order to carry out a research based on health surveys; the professional should transcend the clinical audiologist and speech-language pathologist view, aiming at a social, demographic and economic view of health. PURPOSE: achieve theoretic approach about health inquiries, their concepts, history and published results in audiology and speech-language science, with emphasis on hearing health. CONCLUSION: health surveys make up an important investigation method to be explored by audiologists and speech-language pathologists, so that they mat recommend actions related to hearing health according with the population needs based on reliable epidemiologic data.
Morbidity Surveys; Hearing Loss; Public Health