Encuestas de condiciones de trabajo y salud: su utilización en la investigación en salud laboral

objective: to analyse the use of the working and health conditions survey (whcs) in occupational health research. method: a literature review about working and health conditions survey (whcs) was conducted in pubmed and cisdoc in the period 1990-2009 including research articles. in selected papers objectives, main issues and gaps were identified. results: 627 publications were located and we analysed 15 papers about whcs. employment conditions and health were the most explored issues (n=14). considering working conditions, ergonomic (n=11) and psychosocial risk factors (n=10) were more described. 9 papers analysed psychosomatic symptoms and 7 papers described self-perceived health status. only 4 papers included gender perspective and 3 papers incorporated social class within the analysis. research on workers' participation (n=1) and prevention (n=2) was scarcely. conclusions: scientific literature based on the whcs show that some topics have been practically unexplored, such as workers participation, preventive interventions, and labour and familiar conciliation. the introduction of a gender perspective, migration and social class in the analysis of the scientific articles would be well acknowledged.