Vocal effort and voice handicap among teachers.

The relationship between voice handicap and professional vocal effort was investigated among teachers in a cross-sectional study of census nature on 4496 teachers within the public elementary education network in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Voice handicap (the outcome of interest) was evaluated using the Voice Handicap Index 10. The main exposure, the lifetime vocal effort index, was obtained as the product of the number of years working as a teacher multiplied by the mean weekly working hours.

[Psychosocial work-related factors and musculoskeletal pain among schoolteachers].

This study aimed to investigate the association between work-related psychosocial factors and musculoskeletal pain (MP) among primary schoolteachers in the public school system in Salvador, Bahia State, Brazil. A cross-sectional epidemiological study included all 4,496 teachers from the system. A self-applied mail questionnaire was used to collect information on complaints of musculoskeletal pain in the upper limbs, lower limbs, and back (dependent variables), demand-control model quadrants (independent variables), and covariables.

Factors associated with vocal fold pathologies in teachers.

Objective: To analyze factors associated with the prevalence of the medical diagnosis of vocal fold pathologies in teachers.

Methods: A census-based epidemiological, cross-sectional study was conducted with 4,495 public primary and secondary school teachers in the city of Salvador, Northeastern Brazil, between March and April 2006. The dependent variable was the self-reported medical diagnosis of vocal fold pathologies and the independent variables were sociodemographic characteristics; professional activity; work organization/interpersonal relationships; physical work environment characteristics; frequency of common mental disorders, measured by the Self-Reporting Questionnaire-20 (SRQ-20 >7); and general health conditions.

Auditory vocal analysis and factors associated with voice disorders among teachers.

Unlabelled: Teachers are professionals who demand much of their voices and, consequently, present a high risk of developing vocal disorders during the course of employment.

Objective: To identify factors associated with vocal disorders among teachers.

Method: An exploratory cross-sectional study, which investigated 476 teachers in primary and secondary schools in the city of Salvador, Bahia.

Diagnostic validity of Voice Handicap Index-10 (VHI-10) compared with perceptive-auditory and acoustic speech pathology evaluations of the voice.

Background: The voice handicap index (VHI) questionnaire and its reduced version (VHI-10) have the aim of measuring voice problems from the subject's self-perception. No studies on the predictive value of VHI-10 have been conducted.

Objective: To determine diagnostic validity indicators for VHI-10.

Intensive care unit physicians: socio-demographic profile, working conditions and factors associated with burnout syndrome.

Objectives: Burnout syndrome is a response to prolonged occupational stress that involves three main dimensions: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. The aim of this study was to describe socio-demographic characteristics of intensive care unit physicians and evaluate factors associated to the presence of Burnout syndrome in this population.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed to evaluate physicians who have worked in intensive care units from the city of Salvador (Bahia - Brazil) with a minimum weekly workload of 12-hour.

[Factors associated with voice disorders among women teachers].

This study aimed to identify risk factors for voice disorders (hoarseness in the previous six months as an initial manifestation, and vocal cord nodules as a more severe manifestation of overt disease) among teachers. The cross-sectional study included 747 women teachers from elementary and middle schools in the public school system in Vitória da Conquista, Bahia State, Brazil. Data were collected using a self-applied, standardized questionnaire.

[Association between mental disorders and work-related psychosocial factors in teachers].

Objective: To investigate the association between work-related psychosocial factors and the prevalence of mental disorders among pre-school and elementary school teachers.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was undertaken with 1,024 teachers from municipal public schools and from the ten largest private schools in Vitória da Conquista, Bahia State (Northeastern Brazil) in 2001. The main independent variable was based on the demand-control model, which classifies individuals according to their job pressures.

[Work and psychological distress among public school teachers in Vitória da Conquista, Bahia State, Brazil].

A cross-sectional study with all the teachers in the municipal school system in Vitória da Conquista, Bahia State, Brazil, investigated the association between work content (psychological demand and control over work) and the occurrence of minor psychiatric disorders (MPD) among teachers. The Karasek demand-control model was used to evaluate control over work. The Self-Report Questionnaire-20 was used to evaluate minor psychiatric disorders.