Work context and the occupational health cost for community health workers

Abstract

The scope of this study was to evaluate the work context and the occupational health cost among Community Health Workers (CHWs). It is a cross-sectional, census study, using a socio-economic questionnaire, the Work Context Assessment Scale (WCAS) and the Human Cost at Work Scale (HCWS), which make up the Inven-tory of Work and Illness Risk (IWIR). Descriptive analyses of mean factor scores were performed and comparison of means between items and sociodemographic characteristics of the group, through Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis’s tests with a 5% significance level. A total of 675 CHWs participated in the study. All factors related to working conditions and human cost at work presented a moderate/critical evaluation. Age, length of service and employment ties were vari-ables associated with all factors of WCAS, while only length of service was associated with all factors for CHWs. More negative assessments of the work context and the occupational health cost were more evident among CHWs with longer ex-perience. The results highlight the need to improve working conditions and professional relationships related to CHW.