Relationship between working and voice conditions self-reported by telemarketers of an emergency call center.

PURPOSE

To investigate whether there is association between vocal symptoms, voice complaint, and working and voice conditions self-reported by telemarketers.

METHODS

Study participants were 72 telemarketing operators, both genders, who work in an emergency call center. They responded to a questionnaire on personal data, voice complaints, vocal symptoms, and working conditions. Data analysis was performed using the Chi-square, Mann-Whitney, and Fisher's Exact tests.

RESULTS

Correlation was found between the telemarketers in the study group and voice disorder complaint for aspects of working condition, such as noisy working environment, and aspects of voice condition, such as change in the voice and workplace absence. Differences were observed between the mean of auditory vocal symptoms of participants for echo in the work room, change in voice, and workplace absence, as well as between the mean of their sensory vocal symptoms in relation to the variables stressful work rate, noisy working environment, noise from other rooms, echo in the work room, radio use, change in voice, and workplace absence.

CONCLUSION

Correlation was found between the presence of vocal complaints, number of auditory and sensory vocal symptoms, and working conditions self-reported by the telemarketers surveyed.