Background: To know the prevalence of emotional disorders in a working population.
Subjects and method: Workers in four companies: construction (A), automobile components (B), electrical and electronic systems (C) and management services (D). The design of the study was cross-sectional with the GHQ-28 questionnaire.
Results: The prevalence fluctuated between 8,4% (A) and 24,0% (D). Sex, age, educational level and occupation showed significance differences in some companies.
Conclusions: The results suggest an important prevalence of emotional disorders that likely increase as there will be more firms of services.