Association between the environment and work conditions profile and the perception of health and quality of life in teachers in elementary education

Objective: To analyze the associations between environment and work conditions profile and teachers' quality of life.Methods: Descriptive-cross-sectional study with 349 teachers of Basic Education from Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil, regarding state and municipal systems. The teachers answered the "Environment and Work Conditions Profile" and health questions. The variables were related by linear regression considering the quality of life as dependent variable and the perception of working conditions as explanatory variable.Results: The dimensions compensation and benefits and physical environment showed high percentage of dissatisfaction. More than half of the teachers were dissatisfied with the ergonomic furniture and equipment and noisy and temperature conditions; 52.8% presented mental exhaustion always/often and 50.1% reported difficulties due to aggressive students. Environment and work conditions profile explained 24.6% of environment domain of quality of life evaluation.Conclusion: Teachers perceive that the career benefits are below the relevance and the demands of the profession. Dissatisfaction with working conditions is materialized by the reduction of these professionals' health. Furthermore, social support in the school environment seems to make conditions more favorable to the work.