HEALTH STATUS OF FIELD LEVEL FEMALE HEALTH PERSONNEL: STUDY IN A RURAL AREA OF WEST BENGAL

Introduction: Health personnel are the backbone of health care delivery system.Their work is stressful. Yet no attention is paid to their health. With this background a study was conducted to assess the health status of female health workers of Singur Block West Bengal. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed in 78 female health personnel working at community level, selected by complete enumeration method. The study period was 3 months (June to August, 2017). Data was collected with a questionnaire on demographic and behavioral characteristics, SF-12 questionnaire for general health, PSS-4 questionnaire for stress with anthropometric measurement and blood sugar examination. Descriptive statistics were presented andChi-square Test was performed to analyze the data by using SPSS 16 version. Results: Of the 78 subjects 40(51.3%) personnel were with poor health and 31(64.6%) of them were stressed.Poor health was associated increased age, stressand abnormal duration of sleep which was statistically significant. Conclusion: Majority of the female health personnel had poor health. Periodic health check up is a must for maintenance of their good health.