Abstract
BACKGROUND: Health care workers are available to provide care to patients, but lack of concern with their lives, work organization and difficult interpersonal relationships make them susceptible to physical or mental diseases. OBJECTIVE: To establish the profile of health care workers in the public sector in Sergipe, Brazil, granted sick leave due to depression, frequency of relapse and characteristics of absenteeism. METHODS: Cross-sectional and descriptive study in which we analyzed secondary data for the period from 2009 2017 available in the State Secretariat of Planning, Budget and Management electronic records. RESULTS: Sixty-three workers required sick leave, representing a total of 290 medical legal examinations. Workers who required sick leave were mostly female (90.5%), married (54.0%), had a master's degree (33.3%) and were nursing technicians (34.9%). The most frequent diagnosis as per the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) was single major depressive disorder (F32), 26.5%. The average number of recurrent spells was 3.6 per worker. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of depression among the analyzed health care workers was high and thus represents a cause of concern requiring intervention.