Occupational injuries among workers from primary health care centers in Brazil

Primary health care workers represent an essential workforce to achieve the World Health Organization’s development goals. Thus, their health also deserves attention. The aims of this study are to investigate the occurrence of occupational injuries and associated factors among workers from Primary Health Care Centers in Florianópolis, South Brazil. A cross-sectional study was conducted among all workers from 49 Primary Health Care Centers, 1,294 workers were interviewed. Injury rates per 100 workers-year and cumulative prevalences of occupational injuries for the previous 12 months were calculated. Multivariate analyses were conducted through Poisson regression. The cumulative prevalence of occupational injuries was 21.6%. The mean incidence rate of occupational injuries was 47.2 per 100 workers-year. The most frequent types of injuries were blood and body fluid exposures (22.0%), followed by falls (15.5%). In the adjusted analysis, a higher incidence of occupational injuries was associated with occupation as cleaning personnel (IRR: 2.20; 95%CI: 1.03; 4.69), nurse assistant (IRR: 2.52; 95%CI: 1.64; 3.87) or dental assistant (IRR: 3.68; 95%CI: 1.93; 7.01), length of employment of two years or less (IRR: 1.62; 95%CI: 1.14; 2.32), higher work load score (IRR: 1.58; 95% CI: 1.21; 2.07), inadequate work environment conditions (IRR: 1.35; 95% CI: 1.05; 1.74), previous occupational accident (IRR: 4.33; 95%CI: 3.28; 5.71), current smoking (IRR: 1.38; 95% CI: 1.07; 1.77) and job dissatisfaction (IRR: 1.55; 95% CI: 1.03; 2.32). Primary Health Care Centers present a wide range of hazardous situations. The community environment also presents hazards in terms of infrastructure and violence. Previous occupational accident was the strongest predictor of occupational injury, supporting the assumption that workers who sustained previous injuries have greater risk for reinjuring themselves at the workplace. These findings have implications in the implementation of strategies to improve workplace health and to reduce occupational injuries.