Guia de orientação para profissionais de saúde: identificando alterações vocais e miofuncionais em idosos

Abstract

Introduction: In the last decades, Brazil has followed the world scenario regarding the demographic transition process, with consequent population aging, which has demanded the transformation of health care practices. Many elderly people have myofunctional and vocal changes due to senescence, which is unnoticed by many professionals who do not identify such changes. Furthermore, they end up requiring speech-language intervention. Objectives: To identify, in the literature, publications that address the main vocal and myofunctional disorders in elderly people; to construct an instrument for the identification of myofunctional and vocal disorders in the elderly person by primary health care professionals; to offer health professionals a guide that favors the identification of such disorder in the elderly person. Methodology: This is a methodological study, elaborated through three stages: the first one, carried out through an integrative review of the literature on communication disorders of the elderly person regarding orofacial and vocal motricity in the elderly person; the second, which consisted of constructing the Guide from the data acquired in the literature; and the third stage was the validation of content of the Guide by eight judges, experts on the subject. The research was approved by the research ethics committee of the Federal University of Paraíba under opinion 2.190.153 and followed all legal ethical aspects involving human beings, in accordance with Resolution 466/2012. For data analysis, the Content Validity Index was used. Results: In the integrative review of the literature, after applying the exclusion and inclusion criteria, nine articles remained, presenting a greater number of publications in the year 2015, with the CEFAC journal as the one that most addressed the issue through published articles. The studies indicate that there are vocal and oromiofunctional disorders resulting from senescence, namely: hoarseness, tremor and decrease of vocal intensity; decreased tonus and strength of the tongue and masticatory muscles. In the validation of the Guide, regarding the objectives, structure, presentation and relevance, it obtained a general average of the Content Validity Index of 0.90. In this way, the Judges approved its applicability, with all suggestions accepted for the final version. Final Thoughts: The proposed instrument was validated by the judges and will provide health professionals with the possibility of early identifying vocal and oromiofunctional disorders in the elderly person, sending them to the speech therapist and minimizing possible damages to the health of the elderly person.