Community Health Worker: Implications of human labor costs on worker’s health

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the physical, cognitive and social human costs in the work of the community health worker (CHW) and its relation with possible damages to their health. Descriptive, cross-sectional, quantitative and qualitative study, conducted with 251 CHW’s in municipalities from the 13th Regional Coordination of Health Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil. Data were collected through interviews, sociodemographic questionnaire and “Inventory of Work and Illness Risks” (ITRA). The average factor scores and Content Analysis were used for the analysis of data. All factors relating to human costs had moderate / critical evaluation. As for health damage, physical damage received moderate / critical evaluation, and the others were evaluated as positive / supportable. However, the presence of mental disorders was reported, in a discourse that trivialized suffering from work.