Niveles de depresión en profesionales de la salud en el Centro de Salud Carlos Elizalde en la ciudad de Cuenca en el período 2022

Abstract

Depression is a disorder that affects several areas of a person's life, causing clinically significant discomfort that often complicates their job performance. In the case of health professionals, this can be especially challenging, because their work context constantly exposes them to complex situations that require a high degree of effort, not only physical but also mental. It has been found that there may be a relationship between carrying out professional practice in the field of health and the possible appearance of mood disorders, such as depression. The purpose of this research was to describe the levels of depression of the health personnel of the Carlos Elizalde Health Center in the city of Cuenca in the period 2022, and the possible influence of certain sociodemographic variables such as age, sex, profession, among others. For this, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) was used, applying it to the 45 participants who work at the Carlos Elizalde Health Center. Subsequently, a classification of the scores associated with the depression variable was made, grouping them according to the different sociodemographic variables. As a result, only 20% of the study participants showed levels of depression. On the other hand, no significant relationship was found between the sociodemographic variables and the levels of depression. In addition, the number of patients taken care of by them in the last year was used as an indicator of the professionals' workload, however, there was no evidence of an influence relationship between this variable and depression.