Prescribed medication use among elementary teachers: Prevalence and associated factors

Abstract

The aims of the study were to assess the prevalence and analyze the associated factors of medication use among teachers. A cross-sectional study was carried out, involving 530 teachers from Londrina city, Paraná, Brazil. The dependent variable was prescribed medication use and the independent variables were sociodemographic, work-related, lifestyle, health disorders, and chronic diseases, all assessed through questionnaires. Prevalence of medication use was 59.1%. Chronic disease was associated with all medications analyzed. Variables positively associated with medication use according to health disorder type were: Cardiometabolic (Length of employment, overweight, not current tobacco use, and TV viewing); Psychological (Length of employment, common mental disorders, current tobacco use, and disability); Orthopedic (Length of employment, health insurance, overweight, musculoskeletal pain, low job support, and disability); Respiratory (TV viewing and problems related to dust or chalk powder); and Gastrointestinal (common mental disorders and physical activity [negative association]). Support for access, the appropriate use of medicines, and a reduction in medication use should consider work-related, lifestyle, and health disorders, as well as chronic diseases.

Self-rated health among teachers: prevalence, predictors, and impact on absenteeism, presenteeism, and sick leave

“…One finding that supports this hypothesis is that teachers with health insurance report higher use of medications for orthopedic disorders. 20 …”

“…School infrastructure is a variable that encompasses a wide range of factors such as noise, temperature, lighting, cleaning, ventilation, size, and furniture, as described previously. 8 , 13 , 27 Despite the absence of information regarding poor self-rated health among teachers, school infrastructure has been associated with poor musculoskeletal health, 8 simultaneous medication use, 20 and absenteeism, presenteeism, and sick leave days. 13 Similarly, it has been reported that there is a positive association between perceived school physical environment and overall quality of life, and physical and psychological domains among Brazilian teachers 10 and the same was observed in Chinese teachers for the physical domain of quality of life.…”

“…Further information can be found elsewhere. 8 , 13 , 20 This is a cross-sectional study conducted with a probabilistic sample of teachers from Londrina, Paraná, Brazil, in 2014. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee for Research involving human beings at the Universidade Estadual de Londrina (Protocol 118/2014).…”

“…Perceived physical fitness: “Do you have difficulty to perform work (domestic or formal) that involves physical effort?”, with the response options “no”, “low difficulty”, and “high difficulty” (those who reported “low” and “high difficulty” were classified as having poor fitness); chronic disease, “Has a doctor or psychologist reported that you have any of the following chronic diseases?” with answer options “yes” and “no” for a list of categories of chronic diseases (cardiometabolic, psychological, orthopedic, respiratory, gastrointestinal, nervous system, and cancer). 8 , 20 …”

Prevalence of common mental disorders among Brazilian workers: systematic review and meta-analysis

“…In these cases, the study was included in more than one category of work and consequently, for some variables (professional category and sample size), the frequency is higher than the number of included studies (n = 89). The included studies described common mental disorders in 26 work categories: teachers and professors (n = 21) [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43] , nursing staff (n = 20) 7,8,19,20,28,[44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58] , physicians (n=9) 7,19,21,28,46,[59]…”