Factors that influence the quality of life of community health workers

Objective: To investigate the quality of life of community health workers and associate the results with socioeconomic variables. Methods: Cross-sectional study conducted with 153 Community Health Workers of the Brazilian Northeast region active workers in December 2014. We used self-report instrument composed of sociodemographic profile and the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) questionnaire. To determine the domains of the SF36, mean and standard deviation, the Mann-Whitney test was used, with a 0.05 significance level. Results: Most agents were women (80.4%) aged 42 years (+/- 8.01); 64.1% who worked in that position for at least 10 years. The Bodily Pain and General Health Perception domains were the most affected ones. In the first domain, the low rates of means were associated with women over forty years old, less than twelve years of study and more than ten years as a Community Health Worker. In the second domain, the lowest mean levels were associated with women living with more than four people in the household. Conclusion: We detected a loss in quality of life of community health workers, demonstrating low means in the investigated areas, with lower scores for Pain and General Health Perceptions. Several socioeconomic factors interfere with the health and quality of life of workers, as being female, aged over 40, low education level, higher family composition and greater working time.