Fatores relacionados ao uso de equipamentos de proteção individual em agentes comunitários de saúde de um município do litoral norte de São Paulo

Background Community health agents (CHAs) are a part of Family Health Strategy multidisciplinary teams, and their function is to develop individual and collective health promotion, recovery and preventive actions, including household visits. Their work exposes CHAs to hazards in the work environment, therefore, using personal protective equipment (PPE) is essential. Aims To draw the sociodemographic and occupational profile of CHAs and investigate associations with use of PPE. Methods Cross-sectional quantitative study performed with 137 CHAs in a coastal municipality in the north of the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. We applied a questionnaire for sociodemographic and occupational data. The data were subjected to descriptive and inferential analysis, with significance level of 5%. Results 94.16% of the participants were female, and their average age 34.80 years old. Their average time in the job was 3.18 years. The means of transport most often used to commute was bicycles. 94.16% of the participants reported daily use of some type of PPE, which included: sunscreen (88.32%), closed footwear (53.28%), hats (8.0%), sunglasses (6.57%) and raincoats (3.65%). We found significant association between use of PPE and longer time in the job, and between wearing closed footwear and older age and longer time in the job. Conclusion The results point to the need of interventions to promote use of PPE.