Assessment of teachers’ health in relation to working conditions

Abstract

Background: Teaching in schools has been defined as the profession with the most diverse risk factors that affect health. With almost 48000 people currently working in educational institutions, teachers make up the largest occupational group in the Republic of Moldova. Material and methods: The study involved 519 teachers from pre-university educational institutions. For the self-assessment of the health status, a questionnaire was created which was applied online. The subjective assessment was performed by researching the entries in the medical cards. Results: The majority of respondents were women (91.4%), with a mean age of 45.6±7.5 years and a working experience of 22.9±3.2 years. In 75.7% of them health is satisfactory, only 3% have serious health problems and would require hospitalization. In 35.8% of cases, the presence of chronic diseases is registered, their top being led by diseases of the gastrointestinal tract (33.8%), the cardiovascular system (29.2%) and endocrine (27.2%). The most common risk factors mentioned were: high levels of stress (53.5%); increased number of tasks (23.4%); lack of support from family and colleagues (22.9%). Conclusions: The health of teachers is influenced by a variety of risk factors. There were no correlations between the type of institution and the subject taught, which highlights the importance of studying the influence of factors in the occupational environment and the development of prevention measures.