THE WORK IN CHILD EDUCATION: factors associated with the symptoms of major depression in teachers and class assistants
Child Rearing, Occupational Health, Depression
Depression is a recurring and disabling nature that is characterized by depressed mood and loss of pleasure or interest in everyday activities. The teaching work in children's education has characteristics that can lead to mental illness of the worker, such as intensification of work, overload of activities and responsibilities and double journey. In view of the literature gap regarding this subject, in addition to the invisibility of the population in question, this study proposes to investigate the health and work situation of teachers and auxiliary class of children's education, seeking to answer the following research question: which the factors associated with the symptoms of major depression in children's education workers in the municipality of Feira de Santana? Objective: to estimate the prevalence of symptoms of major depression (positive screening) and its associated factors in teachers and assistants of the kindergarten class in the city of Feira de Santana, Bahia. Method: This is a cross-sectional, census-based study carried out in day-care centers and Municipal Infant Education Centers in Feira de Santana. The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) was used to screen for symptoms of major depression. Results: A prevalence of symptoms of depression greater than 21.2% was associated with: age group over 32 years (RP = 0.54, 95% CI 0.35-0.82), activity (RP = 1.70, 95% CI: 1.17-2.45), presence of noise (RP = 2.00, 95% CI: 1.25-3.21), alcoholism (RP = 1.60; (95% CI: 1.23-2.72) and self-evaluation of the regular health status (PR = 2.29, 95% CI: 95% CI: 1.11-2.29), job dissatisfaction : 1.49-3.51) and poor / very poor (PR = 4.67, 95% CI: 2.62-8.32). The results obtained in the study show that early childhood workers are exposed to factors that may contribute to the occurrence of symptoms of major depression.