title: [Assessment of competencies of community health workers for epidemiological data collection].
abstract: The scope of this study was to assess competencies in terms of reading, comprehension and problem-solving using educational material created for epidemiological research on people with disabilities. A form with twenty multiple-choice questions was prepared and distributed to a sample of 348 community health workers (CHWs) in the State of Paraíba. The socioeconomic profile revealed that, within the sample, most of these CHWs are female, between 30-49 years of age, married or in a stable relationship, with two children and have graduated from high school. Over 98% of CHWs are government employees and more than half have been working for more than eight years in the same community, predominantly in the urban area. The score for overall performance evaluation ranged from 33 to 60 points, with the mean score of 53.44 ± 4.88 points. This means that the CHWs were able to resolve over 65% of the questions properly. The overall performance was positively correlated with education and negatively with age, having children and the time taken to complete high school education. The overall results indicate the increasing professionalization and education of the CHWs and their potential role as collaborators in basic scientific research to make generalizations about public health.
authors.affiliation: Programa de Mestrado em Saúde Pública, Universidade Estadual da Paraíba, Campina Grande, PB, Brasil, julimusse@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Juliana de Oliveira
authors.initials: Jde O
authors.lastname: Musse
authors.affiliation: Programa de Mestrado em Saúde Pública, Universidade Estadual da Paraíba, Campina Grande, PB, Brasil, julimusse@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Roberta Smania
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Marques
authors.affiliation: Programa de Mestrado em Saúde Pública, Universidade Estadual da Paraíba, Campina Grande, PB, Brasil, julimusse@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Fernando Rocha Lucena
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Lopes
authors.affiliation: Programa de Mestrado em Saúde Pública, Universidade Estadual da Paraíba, Campina Grande, PB, Brasil, julimusse@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Karolinne Souza
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Monteiro
authors.affiliation: Programa de Mestrado em Saúde Pública, Universidade Estadual da Paraíba, Campina Grande, PB, Brasil, julimusse@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Silvana Cristina
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: dos Santos
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003150:Community Health Workers; D003625:Data Collection / Q000592:standards*; D016021:Epidemiologic Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011361:Professional Competence; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult