Estado de los profesionales de la voz en Colombia / State of the professional voice in Colombia

RESUMEN

Objetivos: Evaluar las características patológicas más frecuentes en los profesionales de la voz colombianos. Mostrar los factores de riesgo en esta población, individualizándolos según cada profesión. Diseño: Estudio observacional descriptivo, de corte transversal. Métodos: Revisión de historias clínicas y estroboscopias realizadas entre los años 2006 y 2010. Encuestas personales, para preguntar sobre las características de la población evaluada. Se hallaron medidas de tendencia central para las variables cuantitativas y porcentajes para las cualitativas. Resultados: 825 pacientes, 39% hombres y 60,1% mujeres, dentro de los cuales el 22,4% eran profesores; 9% tuvieron entrenamiento vocal; 80,4% presentaron disfonía como síntoma principal. El hallazgo estroboscópico más frecuente fue tensión muscular supraglótica. El 72% no conocen el término “profesional de la voz”, el 78% trabajan con su voz entre un 70-100%, y los pacientes esperan alrededor de seis meses para ser valorados por laringología. Conclusión: Los profesionales de la voz en Colombia tienen una alta prevalencia de trastornos de la voz, similares a los reportados en la literatura mundial, que se correlacionan con la ausencia de entrenamiento vocal y atención tardía...

ABSTRACT

Objectives: Evaluation of a specific professional voice user’s population in Colombia. Determine the professions more often related to voice issues, their most frequent clinical and stroboscopic findings, preference in gender, lack of voice training, knowledge on voice care and the proficiency in medical attention in the context of a 3rd world country. We propose the potentially related risk factors in each job. Design: Descriptive observational study. Cross sectional. Methods: Data was extracted from the principal author’s patient database. Interviews and stroboscopies made between January 2006 and December 2010. Medical attention perspectives and knowledge on voice care was obtained form a survey conducted in 100 professional voice users included in the study. Results: 1334 patients were included. 825 of them were professional voice users, 39% males and 60.1% females. Teachers represented 22.4% of the population. 9% of the patients had professional voice training. 80.4 % presented with dysphonia as their principal symptom. The most frequent stroboscopic finding was augmented suppraglotic activity. Surveys shows 72% of the patients were not familiarized with the term “professional voice user”. 78% of the patients use their voice 70-100% of their work time. Most patients waited over 6 months to have consultation with a laryngologist. Conclusions: There is a higher prevalence of voice disorders among voice professional users in Colombia with numbers similar to those reported worldwide. There is a correlation with the lack of voice training, delayed health care, lack of knowledge on voice training and voice hygiene and voice disorders...