Background Work and family can influence each other in a negative and positive way (Geurts et al., 2005; Jaga et al., 2013; Moreno-Jiménez et al., 2009), having consequences for health professionals, families and work domain (Amstad et al., 2011; Mcnall et al., 2010). One of its important consequences is work engagement (Kacmar et al., 2014; Martin, 2013), being negatively related with negative work-home interaction (Rothmann & Baumann, 2014), and positively related with positive work-home interaction (Montalbán et al., 2012).

Aims To identify work-home interaction and engagement levels among professionals of Family Health Units (doctors, nurses, clinical secretaries) and to analyse the correlation between these two variables, searching work-home interaction as predictor of engagement.

Method Data were collected using anonymous questionnaires composed by socio-demographic questions and Portuguese versions of SWING (Geurts et al., 2005; Pereira et al., 2014) and UWES (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2003; Marques-Pinto & Picado, 2011). Participated 263 professionals (120 doctors, 92 nurses, 51 clinical secretaries), with mean age of 40 years, 78% female, 67% married, 64% with children and 80% working 40 hours per week.

Results Professionals reported moderate levels of negative work-home interaction (M = 1.10 on 1–3 scale), low levels of negative home-work interaction (M = 0.58) and moderate levels of positive work-home interaction (M = 1.15) and positive home-work interaction (M = 1.30). Engagement dimensions were high (vigour M = 4.4, dedication M = 4.6, absorption M = 4.4 on 0–6 scale). Correlations were found and vwas predicted by 20% of work-home interaction and 5% of socio-demographics characteristics; dedication by 19% of work-home interaction, and absorption by 8% of work-home interaction and 8% of socio-demographics characteristics.

Conclusions Despite professionals presented high work engagement, these results support that work is the main source of negative influence and family is source of positive influence. It’s important to Family Health Units implement actions that promote work-home interaction, being workplaces family-friendly and healthy workplaces.