Assessing hospital workers’ health: a tool for longitudinal health monitoring in a public tertiary hospital in Brazil’s Unified Health System (SUS)

Background

Health and administrative professionals in tertiary hospitals face high levels of occupational stress, mental illness, and multimorbidity. The integrated measurement of these multidimensional health aspects is essential for informing effective workplace health promotion strategies.

Objective

To describe the general health status of federal public hospital staff and correlate the measured health dimensions to inform institutional health promotion initiatives.

Methods

A cross-sectional, online survey study was conducted at Hospital Universitário dos Servidores do Estado (HUSE) between November and December 2025. Data collection was performed via online REDCap questionnaires covering sociodemographic profiles and validated instruments (SRQ-20, MIDAS, AUDIT, WHOQOL-BREF, PHI, WHOQOL-SRPB BREF, CBI, GPAQ, and EPSO). Descriptive statistics, comparisons across employment ties (permanent vs. contracted staff), and Spearman correlation matrices were calculated.

Results

Among 197 accesses, 117 completed the informed consent, and 86 finished all questionnaires. Participants were predominantly female, aged 40–60 years, and Christian. Screening positivity was 25% for common mental disorders, 21% for headache-related disability, and 10% for harmful drinking. Burnout scores clustered in the second quartile, while quality of life, happiness, and spirituality scores were in the upper third. Median physical activity was 670 min/week. Mental symptoms (SRQ-20), headache (MIDAS), and burnout (CBI) correlated positively with each other and negatively with quality of life, happiness, spirituality, and institutional support (EPSO).

Conclusion

The set of instruments proved feasible for situational health diagnosis among hospital staff. Although the sample size was limited in this baseline wave, the initiative fostered workplace health awareness, driving concrete initiatives, including an on-site functional gym and workplace vaccination campaigns.

LAY SUMMARY

• ne in four hospital workers experienced significant mental health symptoms, and one in five suffered from headache-related disability, with burnout predominantly driven by work and personal stressors.

• levels of physical activity, spirituality, and perceived institutional support were correlated with lower burnout, reduced mental distress, and better overall quality of life.

• multi-domain digital questionnaires proved to be a practical tool for diagnosing workforce health, successfully inspiring immediate workplace health promotion actions such as planning an on-site gym and staff vaccination campaigns.