Estado nutricional, autopercepção de saúde de docentes do ensino básico e estratégias de promoção da saúde no ambiente escolar pelo olhar do professor

Abstract

The study of the relations between the teaching work process and the possible physical and mental illness of the teachers is a challenge and a necessity for understanding the health-illness process of the worker. In this sense, the study aimed to analyze the relationship between nutritional status and the self-perception of health of public-school teachers and to identify strategies for promoting teacher health in the school environment, from the perspective of the teacher. This is an applied, descriptive, cross-sectional study, with collection of primary data and probabilistic sampling. The sample consisted of 100 teachers, aged ≥ 21 to <60 years, of both sexes, who work in municipal centers for early childhood education and municipal schools in a municipality, in the northern region of PR/Brazil. To assess nutritional status and abdominal obesity, the body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) were used, respectively. Self-perceived health was determined using the MedicalOutcomes Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) questionnaire. For a more detailed analysis on the perception of mental health, the Beck Depression Inventory – BDI was applied. Teachers were interviewed individually and intervention strategies for health promotion were reported through suggested actions, according to the teachers' perception and answered in thegeneral structured questionnaire. It was found that 60% of teachers are overweight and 66% have abdominal obesity. The SF - 36 domain that had the lowest score was vitality (65.55), followed by general health status (70.02), the domains with the highest scores were functional capacity (83.00) and social aspects (78.50). Regarding the score on the BDI scale, more than three quarters of teachers do not have depressive symptoms. Thenutritional status was significantly correlated with the score of the dimensions of functional capacity, general health status, social aspects, limitations due to emotional aspects and mental health, that is, the more positive these components are, better the nutritional status is either. The strategies for health promotion from the perspective of the teacher, were mainly related to the reduction of the workload, monitoring of a multidisciplinary team at the school in partnership with the government andexternal organizations, in addition to the implementation of public policies with strategies aimed at health teacher's mental health. It can be seen that educators in general need strategies and programs aimed at promoting health in the workplace, especially with regard to improving nutritional status and mental health, being of fundamental importance, that more discussions on this theme be created, which should evolve towards the operationalization of programs that make it possible to increase teachers' health and quality of life conditions.