BackgroundWorkers in Primary Health Care are often exposed to stressful conditions at work. This study investigated the association between adverse psychosocial work conditions and poor quality of life among Primary Health Care workers.MethodsThis cross-sectional study included all 797 Primary Health Care workers of a medium-sized city, Brazil: doctors, nurses, nursing technicians and nursing assistants, dentists, oral health technicians, and auxiliary oral hygienists, and community health workers. Data were collected by interviews. Quality of life was assessed using the WHOQOL-BREF; general quality of life, as well as the physical, psychological, social and environmental domains were considered, with scores from 0 to 100. Higher scores indicate a better quality of life. Poor quality of life was defined by the lowest quartiles of the WHOQOL score distributions for each of the domains. Adverse psychosocial work conditions were investigated by the Effort-Reward Imbalance model. Associations were verified using multiple logistic regression.ResultsPoor quality of life was observed in 117 (15.4%) workers. Workers with imbalanced effort-reward (high effort/low reward) had an increased probability of general poor quality of life (OR = 1.91; 1.07–3.42), and in the physical (OR = 1.62; 1.02–2.66), and environmental (OR = 2.39; 1.37–4.16) domains; those with low effort/low reward demonstrated a greater probability of poor quality of life in the social domain (OR = 1.82; 1.00–3.30). Workers with overcommitment at work had an increased likelihood of poor quality of life in the physical (OR = 1.55, 1.06–2.26) and environmental (OR = 1.69; 1.08–2.65) domains. These associations were independent of individual characteristics, job characteristics, lifestyle, perception of general health, or psychological and biological functions.ConclusionsThere is an association between adverse psychosocial work conditions and poor quality of life among Primary Health Care workers.

ObjectivesSocial capital has been studied due to its contextual influence on health. However, no specific assessment tool has been developed and validated for the measurement of social capital among 12-year-old adolescent students. The aim of the present study was to develop and validate a quick, simple assessment tool to measure social capital among adolescent students.MethodsA questionnaire was developed based on a review of relevant literature. For such, searches were made of the Scientific Electronic Library Online, Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences, The Cochrane Library, ISI Web of Knowledge, International Database for Medical Literature and PubMed Central bibliographical databases from September 2011 to January 2014 for papers addressing assessment tools for the evaluation of social capital. Focus groups were also formed by adolescent students as well as health, educational and social professionals. The final assessment tool was administered to a convenience sample from two public schools (79 students) and one private school (22 students), comprising a final sample of 101 students. Reliability and internal consistency were evaluated using the Kappa coefficient and Cronbach's alpha coefficient, respectively. Content validity was determined by expert consensus as well as exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis.ResultsThe final version of the questionnaire was made up of 12 items. The total scale demonstrated very good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha: 0.71). Reproducibility was also very good, as the Kappa coefficient was higher than 0.72 for the majority of items (range: 0.63 to 0.97). Factor analysis grouped the 12 items into four subscales: School Social Cohesion, School Friendships, Neighborhood Social Cohesion and Trust (school and neighborhood).ConclusionsThe present findings indicate the validity and reliability of the Social Capital Questionnaire for Adolescent Students.

This study evaluated the implementation of the School Health Program (PSE in Portuguese) in the city of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais State, Brazil, the mechanisms favoring inter-sector action, and municipal administrators' perceptions concerning inter-sector collaboration. A case study was developed with document search and the application of an online questionnaire. The document search analyzed federal and municipal legislation on the PSE published in the Federal Register and Municipal Register and news on the program published in the Municipal Register. A semi-structured online questionnaire was completed by 30 municipal administrators. Content analysis was used on the qualitative data from the document search and questionnaire. The quantitative data were interpreted by descriptive analysis using Stata v. 13. Integrative mechanisms were identified in the federal and municipal provisions and in the unique PSE model adopted by the city. These mechanisms can potentially promote permanent linkage between health and education. However, the study with municipal administrators showed limited use of these mechanisms and the predominance of a sector-based logic in the program. There was evident difficulty in developing inter-sector collaboration in the program's activities. The potentialities of inter-sector action identified in the official documents and described in the institutional news failed to reverberate in either the administrators' practices or the impact on the schools' territories.

Prevalence of traumatic dental injury was high among the children who participated in the study, and it was associated with a high impact on oral health-related quality of life as well as overjet >3 mm.

When used by trained CHWs, the ROAG is a tool with high sensitivity and specificity to assess voice, swallowing, tongue and teeth/dentures. Moreover, it can efficiently detect patients showing no alteration in lips, saliva, mucosa and gums. High reproducibility was observed in almost all the categories. Trained CHWs can use this tool to improve the access of elderly patients to dental services.