Profile of the clinical information in medical records of tobacco farmers in Alagoas

Background: The study of the profile of medical records of tobacco farmers contributes to discussions on the establishment of diagnosis and its causal correlation with work. Objective: To investigate the profile of clinical information in medical records of tobacco farmers. Methods: The present was a descriptive field and documentary study, with quantitative approach, of 149 medical records of farmers who visited basic health units in rural communities in the municipality of Arapiraca, Alagoas, Brazil, from 2008 to 2013. Results: About 66% of the investigated population was female, with average age 58.6 years old (standard deviation ­ SD±16.4). The most significant clinical complaint found in the records was headache (16.71%), followed by low back pain (10.20%), dysuria or other urinary problems (8.90%) and epigastric pain (8.30%). Medical diagnoses included gastritis (15.1%), depression (7.1%), anxiety (7.1%), myalgia (7.1%) and arthritis/arthralgia (5.3%). Correlation between clinical complaints and work performed by tobacco farmers was registered in one single medical record. Conclusion: The clinical profile of tobacco farmers described in the medical records might be associated with their social and work conditions and related to pesticide and nicotine poisoning. However, the scarcity of information on the environmental and occupational risk context limits the establishment of a causal link. As a function of the relevance of the occupational-clinical conditions of this population of workers, improvement of medical records is necessary, as the temporal relationship between exposure and outcomes might account for the occurrence of the reported symptoms.