[Mental health and anxiety in community health agents in Uberlândia (MG, Brazil)].

UNLABELLED The scope of this research, carried out together with community-based health workers (ACS) was: (1) to evaluate the mental health of the ACS; (2) to describe the vital events in the last year of the ACS; (3) to inquire about the level of anxiety of the ACS; (4) to correlate mental health, vital events and anxiety of the ACS. PARTICIPANTS 116 ACS. MEASUREMENTS socio-demographic questionnaire, Goldberg General Health Questionnaire, The Life Events Inventory, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. The majority of the ACS presented a moderate degree of anxiety and positive mental health; they reported having experienced few stressful events in the past year, even though the majority had experienced health problems. The fact that most of the ACS reported having experienced moderate anxiety levels suggests a probable interference of specific characteristics of the profession. However, the fact that the persons subjectively identified the presence of anxiety and classified it at a given level presupposes that they are using control strategies, which is a factor that assists in maintaining mental health.