Professores da rede pública estadual de Sergipe e principais agravos à sua saúde: por que eles se afastam da sala de aula?

Abstract

Background: Teaching is often carried out under circumstances which lead to illness. This is a frequent cause of withdrawal from the work environment, with negative impacts on education. Aims: We aimed to identify, using the ICD-10, the main causes of sick leave amongst teachers from state public schools in Sergipe, besides constructing a time series of such withdrawals. Methods: This is a retrospective epidemiological research, based on secondary data, which analysed 15,894 social security medical expert reports, dated from 2010 to 2017. Medical expert evaluations are a prerequisite for teacher withdrawals for health treatment. These records were collected by the IT department of the Social Security Medical Board of Sergipe, Brazil. Results: 941,866 lost (non worked) days were recorded in the period studied. Female teachers, older than 40 years of age and with more teaching experience were responsible for the greater portion of the sick leave days. Factors influencing health status (20.92%), mental disorders (20.24%), neoplasms (17.8%), maternity leave and related conditions (12.29%) and musculoskeletal diseases (9.46%), were the main causes. In the time series, there was a tendency of decrease in the total number of non worked days. Conclusion: Sickness absenteeism amongst the teachers studied is a phenomenon deserving attention. The obtained data, in general, were concordant with the literature and could serve as a tool for planning actions aimed at the health of this professional group.