Hypotheses, design, and instruments in the Educatel Study, Brazil, 2015/2016

The Educatel Study 2015/2016 was designed to evaluate health and work conditions in a representative sample of the 2,220,000 schoolteachers working in Basic Education in Brazil. The article aimed to describe the telephone survey's basis and design, using a questionnaire consisting of 54 short, simple questions, most of which with multiple-choice answers (closed questions) addressing diseases, accidents, absenteeism, frequency of healthy behaviors, physical and psychosocial environment, and employment characteristics. In the pilot stage, the multi-theme questionnaire was assessed in order to verify the effects of the terminology, the format of the questions and the multiple-choice answers, the questionnaire's internal organization, production of the answers, and duration of the interview. The interviewers' training and follow-up and listening of the calls in real time aimed to identify communications problems. The teachers were interviewed at school after prior contact with the school assistant to set appointments. The advantages and risks of biases related to the telephone interview modality should be considered to interpret the results. The results on the teachers' profile, illnesses, and school environment will provide inputs for elaborating inter-sector measures to improve the target group's health, which is related to Brazil's school system indicators based on the concepts presented here.