Common mental disorders among health workers: prevalence, co occurrence, and associated factors

Common mental disorders are characterized as a set of symptoms that cause significant functional disability.

To assess the prevalence and clustering of the main symptoms of common mental disorders and the association between sociodemographic/occupational variables and common mental disorders among primary health care workers in the Brazilian cities of Vitória da Conquista, Bahia, and São Geraldo da Piedade, Minas Gerais.

This cross-sectional survey is part of the Longitudinal Study of Physical Activity and Health of Workers in the Health Sector. The Self-Reporting Questionnaire was used to assess common mental disorders. Descriptive statistics, the chi-square test, cluster analysis, and binary logistic regression were performed in IBM SPSS Statistics 22.0.

A total of 107 primary health care workers from Vitória da Conquista (n = 92) and São Geraldo da Piedade (n = 15) participated. The prevalence of common mental disorders was 36.4%, with the most commonly reported symptoms being: feeling nervous, tense, or worried (51.4%); easily fatigued (46.7%); poor sleep (43.9%); frequent headaches (36.4%); and recent feelings of sadness (36.4%). Approximately one-third of the workers had common mental disorders, with 5 simultaneous symptoms being the most prevalent combination. Workers with lower education and those who lived with a partner had a higher and lower risk of common mental disorders, respectively.

Identifying the prevalence and the main symptoms associated with common mental disorders can facilitate the development and implementation of more targeted and effective care actions for this population.