FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS IN COMMUNITY HEALTH AGENTS

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to answer the question, “What are the factors associated with the prevalence of depressive symptoms in community health agents”. This cross-sectional, quantitative, and analytical study used a Patient Health Questionnaire – 9 to check the depressive symptoms and a questionnaire on the socio-demographic and occupational conditions. A Poisson multiple regression with robust variance was performed, considering a significance level of 5% (p < .05). Six hundred seventy-three community health agents participated in the study. The depressive symptoms prevalence was 19.0% (N = 128). There was an association with females (RP:1.09; IC:1.03-1.05), working time as a community health agent over six years (RP:1.12; IC:1.06-1.17), job dissatisfaction (RP:1.13; IC:1.07-1.19) and the variable being religious (RP:.90; IC:.84-.97) as a protection factor. There was high depressive symptoms prevalence among the community health agents associated with socio-demographic factors.