Community health agents' musculoskeletal pain and quality of life

• Published in: Revista de salud pública (Bogotá, Colombia) Vol. 14; no. 4; pp. 668 - 680
• Main Authors: Meira-Mascarenhas, Claudio H, Ornellas-Prado, Fabio, Henrique-Fernandes, Marcos
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Portuguese
• Published: Colombia 01.08.2012
• Subjects: Adult; Community Health Workers; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Musculoskeletal Pain - epidemiology; Occupational Diseases - epidemiology; Quality of Life; Surveys and Questionnaires
• ISSN: 0124-0064

This study was aimed at assessing the impact of musculoskeletal pain (MSP) on the quality of life (QL) of community health agents' (CHA) working in Jequié, Bahia, Brazil. This was a cross-sectional descriptive-analytic census type study in which 316 CHA participated. The instruments used were a questionnaire, containing demographic information regarding occupational and MSP, and the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire for assessing QL. Descriptive statistics and the Mann Whitney test (5% significance level) were used on the data. The WHOQOL-BREF physical and environmental domains returned scores lower than the psychological and social ones. MSP prevalence was 84.8% considering the past seven days; the legs was the region reported to suffer most (70.9 %). All QLareas were compromised in the CHA group reporting MSP compared to the group without symptoms (p<0.001physical domain, p<0.001 psychological, p=0.001 social relation ships and p<0.001 environment). The study showed that MSP could be considered an important factor compromising the QL of CHA working in Jequié, Bahia. Specific public policy must thus be implemented for dealing with this, thereby contributing to improving CHA working conditions and quality of life.