Abuso/dependência de álcool em profissionais de saúde da Rede Municipal de Saúde de Belo Horizonte

Abstract

Alcohol consumption is a common habit in societies, but its abusive use and other serious forms of use can generate diverse physical, family and social damages. It has been estimated that 3.3 million deaths worldwide each year are attributed to alcohol use. The characteristics of health work can be factors associated with the harmful consumption of alcohol, since they put the professionals in constant experiences with the human suffering and the illness, and not infrequently, they offer inadequate organizational, infrastructure and interpersonal relations conditions that Contribute to illness. This is a cross-sectional study, developed with 1776 health professionals from the Municipal Health Network of Belo Horizonte/MG from 2008 to 2009, in order to identify the factors associated with abuse/dependence of alcohol. We collected data on individual characteristics, family and work. The participants were classified as abuse/dependence of alcohol when you had two answers "Yes" to the set of four screening tool questions. Cut down, Annoyed by criticism, Guilty and Eye-opener (CAGE).For the data analysis, descriptive analyzes (absolute and relative frequency), bivariate (Pearson's chi-square test or t-Student test) and multivariate analyzes were performed (based on the theoretical model of workers' mental health determinants proposed by Alain Marchand). The prevalence of abuse/dependence of alcohol in the study population was 7.2% (95% CI: 6.0-8.4). After adjusting for the final model, the following factors increased the chance of abuse/dependence of alcohol among participants: irregular working hours (OR: 1.64; 95% CI: 1.08-2.49); OR: 3.99; 95% CI: 2.62-6.07), diagnosis of common mental disorder (OR: 2.44; 95% CI: 1.52-3.89), smoker (OR: 2.41; 95% CI: 1.52-3.83) and former smoker (OR: 1.94; 95% CI: 1.18-3.23).On the other hand, the psychological demand at work decreased the chance of abuse/dependence of alcohol among the participants (OR: 0.89; 95% CI: 0.81-0.97). The results reinforce the importance of taking into account alcohol abuse among the category of health professionals. In addition, it is emphasized that the characteristics of the work can contribute to the beginning of this problem, which generates an alert for the managers in the formulation of policies to promote the health of the worker.