Knowledge of voice training and self-care among politicians in Sergipe, Brazil

Abstract

Introduction: politicians use professional vocals, particularly during the electoral campaigns. Objective: to indentify if there is or there is not a perception among members of the state assembly, of their vocal care during the electoral campaigns. Method: exploratory design, cross, qualitative with content analysis, in a convenience sample design. Within the 24 state deputies, 10 voluntarily agreed to participate, answering a self-applied questionnaire, elaborated for the study. The questions were presented in sections personal profile (age, gender, prior profession before entering politics and time as state deputy; knowledge of use of the vocals and if have had support from speech-language pathologist; perception of vocal behavior changes, prior, during and after electoral campaign; complains of any vocal issues during the collection of data. Results: out of the 10 interviewed, 9 were of the masculine gender, the average age was 45 (38-53) years; the average time of political activity was 15 (11-22) years and they had parallel professions were they utilized professional voice. Two state deputies had received basic vocal education in radio courses.  Only 4 take some care of their voice. We identified four categories that we named stereotypes: the “non-caring”; the “without knowledge but caring”; the “supposing correct”; the “theoretically informed but negligent”. Final considerations: only four respondents worried, even if in a rudimental form, with the use of adequate voice. It was observed that there is a lack of knowledge of the contribution of speech-language pathology to the vocal education.