Resumen

GAVIRAGHI, Daniela; ANTONI, Clarissa de; AMAZARRAY, Mayte Raya  y  SCHAEFER, Luiziana Souto. Medicalization, substance use, and work context in bank employees in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Rev. Psicol., Organ. Trab. [online]. 2016, vol.16, n.1, pp. 61-72. ISSN 1984-6657.

The context of banking work today has been related to psychological distress and disease processes. In this scenario, medicalization and substance use may be associated with work factors. The present study investigated the prevalence and the relationship between medication and psychotropic drug consumption,substance use, and working environment. The participants in this survey were 1,117 bank workers in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, who answered: a sociodemographic, occupational, and medication use questionnaire, the Work Context Assessment Scale (EACT), and the Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST). The results were analyzed using descriptive and correlational statistics. Employees evaluated their work context mostly negatively, with Critical and Serious results for the EACT, indicating extreme situations, with potential malaise at work and high risk of illness. A high prevalence of medication (49.9 %) and psychotropic drug (26.3%) consumption was found, as well as attributing the use of psychotropic drugs, alcohol and/or other drugs to the work (40%). The prevalence was higher in women, employees of private institutions, and those with a work schedule longer than forty hours per week. Alcohol consumption was more frequent than other drugs, accounting for 35.7% of the sample, who reported weekly consumption. These results reveal the worrying situation of medicalization in banking workers and its association with a work context potentiating malaise. To deal with such conditions, workers use different coping strategies, such as medicalization and substance use.

Palabras clave : Working conditions; occupational health; medicalization.

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