Social support at work: a cohort study with civil servants from a public university

Social support at work - related to the interaction between co-workers and supervisors in cooperation toward work achievement - can contribute to reducing the strain on workers and health risks. Therefore, the present study aimed to analyze the social support at work and associated factors among the technical-administrative staff in education from a public university. This is a cohort study with 328 active civil servants, who answered a questionnaire providing information about the social support at work and the independent sociodemographic variables related to work and health. We used Student's t-test, the χ2 test, and logistic regression to analyze the prevalence of and factors associated with social support at work. The workers were predominantly males, with a mean age of 47 years, married, with children, had higher education and beyond, showed good working conditions, health status, and high social support at work (85.7%). Factors associated with social support at work included work shift, depression, and work ability. The factors associated with social support should be properly analyzed in order to maintain this positive interaction in the work environment.