Indicadores de saúde mental e qualidade de vida nas diferentes carreiras da polícia civil

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of common mental disorders (mood, anxiety and somatization disorders) and the perception of quality of life of civilian policemen of different careers in a region of the Triângulo Mineiro. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study where we selected a convenience sample of 202 police officers (approximately 47% of the population) from the 9th Civil Police Department of Minas Gerais, subdivided among the careers of delegates, clerks, investigators and experts, operating in the cities of Uberlândia, Ituiutaba and Araguari. The evaluation instruments consisted of a sociodemographic questionnaire and two validated questionnaires for quality of life analysis (WHOQOL-Bref) and prevalence of common mental disorders (SRQ-20). Categorical variables were analyzed by the chi-square test for multiple comparisons. For the correlation between the continuous variables, the Spearman correlation coefficient, the Kruskal-Wallis test and the Mann-Whitney test were used. Results: Of the total number of participants, 116 individuals (57.4%) presented positive screening for common mental disorders, identified with SRQ-20 scores equal to or higher than 8. Regarding quality of life, police officers presented the minors scores (WHOQOL-Bref), mainly in the physical (p = 0.00, η² = 0.10) and psychological (p = 0.0; η² = 0.08) domains. Police with SRQ≥8 obtained a lower median quality of life scores in all domains compared to those with negative screening (SRQ-20 <8), mainly in the physical domains (p = 0.00, η² = 0, 40) and psychological (p = 0.00, η² = 0.36). Conclusions: Civilian police, especially the clerks, revealed a high prevalence of common mental disorders. In addition, police with common mental disorders presented worse quality of life, demanding effective measures to improve the individual outcomes and health conditions of the occupants of the various police careers.