Relationship between the presence of videolaryngoscopic signs suggestive of laryngopharyngeal reflux and voice disorders in teachers

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the relationship between the presence of videolaryngoscopic signs suggestive of laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) and voice disorder (VD) in teachers.

Methods: this is a cross-sectional study with convenience sample and inclusion criteria as subjects 18 years or older, be a teacher female, seek care with complaint of VD and/or LPR. The exclusion criteria included smoking and presence of respiratory changes. All subjects concluded the following instruments: Vocal Production Condition - Teacher (VPC-T), including the Screening Index for Voice Disorder (SIVD); and Voice Handicap Index (VHI). Speech samples were collected for voice perceptual assessment and all of them were submitted to otorhinolaryngology review.

Results: We evaluated 121 teachers, with a mean age of 43 years and 7.8 class hours per day. Only 24.0% of the teachers did not have vocal cord lesions and 42.1% had videolaryngoscopic signs suggestive of LPR. In the group of teachers with presence of Signs suggestive of LPR, the most common symptoms of SIVD were dry throat, hoarseness, throat clearing; the average VHI was 17.9 points. There was no association between voice disorder and presence of videolaryngoscopic signs suggestive of LPR. The independent factors for the LPR in the multiple binary logistic regression analysis were age and VHI score (tertile: 13-20).

Conclusion: There was no association between VD and LPR, but between age and VHI score.