Prevalence of common mental disorders among Brazilian workers: systematic review and meta-analysis

The aim of the present study was to summarize the prevalence of common mental disorders (CMD) among Brazilian workers through a systematic review and meta-analysis. Searches were conducted in SciELO, LILACS, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. Articles were included if they had; an observational design, a sample of Brazilian workers, used a validated instrument and cut-off to assess CMD, and provided the prevalence value. A random-effect meta-analysis using professional categories as subgroups and a meta-regression were conducted. In total, 89 studies were included, with a total of 56,278 workers from 26 professional categories. The overall pooled prevalence of CMD was 0.30 (95%CI: 0.27-0.34), varying from 0.07 to 0.58. Professional categories that presented higher prevalences of CMD were: Prostitutes 0.58 (95%CI: 0.51-0.65), Social Educators 0.54 (95%CI: 0.50-0.59), Banking Workers 0.45 (95%CI: 0.44-0.47), Ragpickers 0.45 (95%CI: 0.40-0.49), and Teachers 0.40 (95%CI: 0.32-0.48). No other variable in addition to profession was associated with prevalence of CMD in the meta-regression analysis. Workers from the most affected professional categories should be monitored to prevent social, occupational, and health impairment from CMD.