Referred speech-language and hearing complaints in the western region of São Paulo, Brazil

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to characterize the epidemiological profile of the population attending primary health care units in the western region of the city of São Paulo, Brazil, highlighting referred speech-language and hearing complaints. METHOD This investigation was a cross-sectional observational study conducted in primary health care units. Household surveys were conducted and information was obtained from approximately 2602 individuals, including (but not limited to) data related to education, family income, health issues, access to public services and access to health services. The speech-language and hearing complaints were identified from specific questions. RESULTS Our results revealed that the populations participating in the survey were heterogeneous in terms of their demographic and economic characteristics. The prevalence of referred speech-language and hearing complaints in this population was 10%, and only half the users of the public health system in the studied region who had complaints were monitored or received specific treatment. CONCLUSIONS The results demonstrate the importance of using population surveys to identify speech-language and hearing complaints at the level of primary health care. Moreover, these findings highlight the need to reorganize the speech-language pathology and audiology service in the western region of São Paulo, as well as the need to improve the Family Health Strategy in areas that do not have a complete coverage, in order to expand and improve the territorial diagnostics and the speech-language pathology and audiology actions related to the prevention, identification, and rehabilitation of human communication disorders.