Social support at work and leisure time and its association with self-rated health and sickness absence

Abstract

The aim of this longitudinal study is to investigate how different aspects of social support at work and in leisure time are associated with self rated health and sickness absence. The 541 participants in the study were representative for a working population in the public sector in Sweden with a majority being woman. Most of the variables were created from data from a questionnaire in March-April 2005. There were four independent variables and two dependent variables. The dependent were based on data from November 2006. A logistic regression model was used for the analysis of associations. A separate model was adapted for each of the explanatory variables for each outcome, which gave five models per independent variable. The study has given a greater awareness of the importance of employees receiving social support, regardless of type of support or from whom the support is coming. Social support has a strong association with SRH in a longitudinal perspective and no association between social support and sickness absence.