[Workers' health in Brazil: graduate research].

OBJECTIVE To study trends of dissertation and thesis production in workers' health in Brazil. METHODS Observation units were dissertations and theses developed by Brazilian researchers in national and foreign graduate programs. Theses and dissertations were identified in previously compiled works, LILACS and Capes database. Search keywords were workers' health, ergonomics, occupational hygiene, toxicology, and occupational health. RESULTS There were identified 1,025 documents. Of them, seven were published before 1970, 31 were published in 1970s, 121 in 1980s, 533 in 1990s, and 333 between 2000 and 2004. An exponential growth of studies during the study period was observed with a corresponding factor approximately equal to 4 in each decade. The majority of studies addresses major public health issues like musculoskeletal diseases, mental health, and occupational risks for health workers. It was noticeable the small number of studies on unemployment, occupational cancer, and primary sector and construction industry workers, known as a risk group for fatal work-related injuries. CONCLUSIONS The growth of public and collective health graduate programs was a major factor for increasing research on workers' health in Brazil in recent years. Despite increasing academic studies in this area of knowledge there are some persisting gaps persist that need to be narrowed in the near future.