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

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

Objectives: 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.

Methods: 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.

Results: 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.

Conclusions: 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.