Resumo

HERNANDEZ, Ramón. Hearing and voice conditions on telephone operators. Salud de los Trabajadores [online]. 2008, vol.16, n.2, pp.65-72. ISSN 1315-0138.

Hearing and speech are the most vulnerable functions in telephone operators. These workers stay connected to a telephone line six hours a day, six days a week. We evaluated hearing and speech in a population of 140 telephone operators (74 female and 66 male), with an average age of 26.9 years and 3.5 years. Study participants underwent an otoscopic examination, tympanometry, pure tone audiometry and a test of hearing symptoms. Speech and voice were evaluated with indirect or endoscopic laryngoscopy, computerized acoustic analysis of the voice and a test of vocal habits, in order to classify risk of vocal performance. Results showed that 10% of the sample population had very mild to moderate hearing loss, 51% had laryngoscopicallydetermined vocal abnormalities, and 61% had at least two abnormalities on testing of hearing symptoms. In conclusion, phone operators have a high prevalence of hearing and speech abnormalities. Hearing loss is mainly conductive, which can be associated with certain workplace environmental conditions that, in and of themselves, may not be directly related to the occupational use of a telephone headset.

Palavras-chave : Hearing; Auditory Perceptual Disorders; Voice; Working Conditions.