Is remote and distance teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic related to the university professors’ weight gain, body mass index changes, hearing complaints, and self-perception of voice?

• Autor(a) principal: Marchiori,Luciana Lozza de Moraes
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Marchiori,Glória de Moraes, Rodrigues,Matheus Lindofer, Carlos,Priscila, Cordova,Nicoli Meurer, Santos,Michelle Cardoso Machado dos, Branco,Braulio Henrique Magnani, Ciquinato,Daiane Soares de Almeida
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista CEFAC (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-18462021000500513
• topic: Hearing; Voice; Body Mass Index; Faculty; Pandemics, COVID-19

ABSTRACT Purpose: to verify the impact of weight and BMI (Body Mass Index) changes on auditory and vocal symptoms in university professors, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: the symptoms were assessed with a semi-structured questionnaire developed on Google Forms, to which the consent form was appended. It comprised 27 questions related to symptoms, changes, and health, during the pandemic - specifically, vocal and auditory symptoms, anthropometric factors, vocal parameters, physical activity, neck pain, and comorbidities. The Mann-Whitney and Chi-square test were used to identify differences or associations between variables (95% CI; P < 0.05). Results: altogether, 74 professors who comprise the faculty of the undergraduate program at the institution where the research was conducted were assessed. Significant differences were found between those with auditory symptoms (G1: worsened hearing; G2: unchanged hearing) regarding BMI, in which G1 had higher values; and sleep, in which G1 slept fewer hours. The chi-square test showed an association between the groups and BMI classification - those with worsened hearing (G1) were more overweight and their sleeping hours were more affected. There was also an association between the groups and voice change, headphone use (mainly in-ear) during classes, dizziness or vertigo episodes, tinnitus episodes and headache. Conclusion:this study revealed an association between worsened hearing, sleep, and BMI in university professors due to remote and distance teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic.