PRÁTICAS DE ATENÇÃO À SAÚDE DOS TRABALHADORES DA PESCA ARTESANAL NA ATENÇÃO BÁSICA

Abstract

Objective: To characterize the health practices of Primary Health Care professionals aimed at artisanal fishing workers in the municipalities of Ilha de Itaparica. Methods: Quantitative exploratory study carried out with a census of Primary Care (PC) health professionals in the municipalities of Vera Cruz and Itaparica, from May to December 2022. Sixty-seven (89.3%) of a total of 75 health professionals who were part of PC teams in the municipalities during the study period. The qualification of care was based on the fundamental stratification variable composed of the variables (meets the demands of fishing workers; identifies the relationship between illness and fishing work; notifies accidents and injuries related to fishing work and performs reference/counter-reference of workers in the fishing). Socio-occupational data and data related to Worker's Health actions were described according to the frequency of practices aimed at Fishery Worker's Health (higher/lower frequency) through a descriptive analysis of absolute and relative frequencies using the R software version 4.3.0. Graphs and Tables were built for a better visualization of the results. Results: It was observed that only 23.9% of the professionals mentioned more practices aimed at the health of artisanal fishing workers and, of these, 81.2% were part of Family Health Teams (FHC) and 90.2% did not have training in Occupational Health. The health surveillance actions most carried out by this group of professionals were: health inspection in work environments (87.5%); identification of elderly people developing the activity (81.3%) and identification of fishing being carried out at home (75.0%). While in the lower frequency group, 62.7% integrated FHC, 87.5% had no training in Occupational Health. The surveillance actions most carried out in this group were: identification of fishing being carried out at home (70.5%); identification of elderly people developing the activity (66.6%) and identification of risks and injuries (60.8%). The components of the Health Care Network identified by PC professionals for forwarding demands from fishery workers, in both groups were, respectively: Polyclinics/Outpatient services (75.0% and 50.9%) and Hospitals (62.5 % and 56.9%). Recognition of the Worker's Health Reference Center (CEREST) referred to in both groups were respectively (25.0% and 29.4%), and (43.7% and 21.5%) were aware of its attributions. The injuries related to fishing work most diagnosed by professionals, for both groups, were: musculoskeletal diseases (62.5% and 66.7%); gynecological infections (37.5% and 25.5%); NCDs (31.2% and 25.5%) and dermatoses (25.5% and 68.6%). Conclusion: A minority of healthcare professionals in PC carry out specific practices for the occupational health of artisanal fishermen, with a persistence of clinical and routine profile actions within PC, individual disease diagnosis actions. Such a practice profile may be related to low adherence to occupational health training and a less multidisciplinary team profile. In contrast, a higher frequency of practices may be related to the Family Health Strategy model, with the support of multi-professional teams, which could indicate the path to expanding access and improving the quality of healthcare for fishing workers within PC.