Casual Dock Work: Profile of Diseases and Injuries and Perception of Influence on Health

Abstract

The present study aimed to identify the profile of diseases and injuries that affect casual dock workers and identify casual dock workers’ perceptions of positive and negative work influences on their health. This study consisted of two phases. The first phase was a quantitative study composed of a retrospective analysis, conducted with 953 medical records. The second phase of the research is a non-random sample with 51 casual dock workers. Data analysis was performed with SPSS 19.0. The average age of the casual dock workers was 48.7. Concerning working time, the majority had more than 19.6 years of dock work experience. In the first phase, 527 pathologic diagnoses were identified. The diagnoses that affected the musculoskeletal system (15.8%, N = 152; p < 0.01) were highlighted. Consequences to physical health produced by accidents stood out, with fracture registration predominating (12.8%, N = 122; p < 0.05). Significant differences were found for positive work influence on the cardiovascular system and family health. It was concluded that the diagnoses obtained are related to the influence of dock work perception and have motivated an introduction of preventive measures.

<b> Elementos ecossistêmicos da saúde do trabalhador portuário e seu processo de trabalho / Ecosystemic elements of the health of dockworkers and the work process

“…O desenvolvimento da disciplina abrangeu a leitura de extensa bibliografia, destacando-se os estudos de Frontier (2) e Laustsen (3) , discutidos de forma integrada às literaturas que versam sobre a dinâmica, os riscos e as características do trabalho portuário (1,(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12) . Às literaturas citadas, aplicou-se a teoria da derivação teórica, por meio da qual se realizaram analogias acerca de um conhecimento dado a um fenômeno -teoria dos ecossistemas -para o estudo e a produção de conhecimento em outro âmbito: o da saúde do trabalhador portuário (3) .…”

“…Entre outros riscos, os TPAs atuam expostos ao ruído, à queda de objetos suspensos e às intempéries, que agem como complemento no perfil de morbidade, identificado também através da prevalência de distúrbios osteomusculares e de patologias cardíacas, como a hipertensão (4,9,10,11,12) , o que reforça a influência do ecossistema porto na qualidade de vida e na produtividade do trabalhador.…”

“…Nesse sentido, a presente reflexão tenta fortalecer as possibilidades do exercício da Enfermagem ecossistêmica, mediante a avaliação ambiental que proporciona, por meio da análise das situações de risco e da determinação dos efeitos dos mesmos sobre o indivíduo, a família e a comunidade, o aperfeiçoamento da ciência profissional e a produção de saúde via comportamentos ecológicos/ecossistêmicos (3) . Para a adequada efetivação do tipo de avaliação aqui proposta, sublinha-se a importância da clínica da Enfermagem, numa integração com a percepção dos trabalhadores expostos, pois eles constituem os maiores conhecedores da realidade de trabalho pesquisada (11,12) . Assim, propicia-se a comunicação de riscos pessoais e ambientais, o que facilita a formulação de estratégias conjuntas para minimizá-los, evitando que afetem e prejudiquem os trabalhadores envolvidos.…”

Scientific evidence of dockworker illness to nursing clinical reasoning

“…Thus, CR guide professionals to define what social and environmental conditions contribute to the determination of the illness, developing, therefore, the causal link, understood as occupational, individual and collective risk factors that lead to occupational illness (2) . In the port working environment context in the southern of Brazil, health research identified the prevalence of some diagnosed illnesses as musculoskeletal disorders (3) , hypertension, low-back pain, lung disease and depressive episodes (4)(5) , additionally, self-reported illnesses such as osteoarticular and mental disorders (6) . These results indicate the need to identify whether all port realities lead to the same occupational illnesses, and how nursing can use these and other information in the CR processing, in order to mitigate and prevent them.…”

Identificação de transtornos traumáticos cumulativos em portuários para o raciocínio clínico

“…In this respect, a specific process of clinical reasoning is implemented, which might contribute to deepen the relationship among health, environment, work and disease of port workers, mediating the communication of occupational risks for the healthy maintenance of the port work process and other occupational realities. (8,9) Furthermore, the objective of this study was to associate the cumulative post-traumatic disorders self-reported by port workers with the socio-environmental constraints of their work.…”