Assessment of stress and associated factors in employees of a public higher education institution.

Introduction: Occupational stress is considered as the negative imbalance between work demands and resources, and it can generate consequences to an individual's health and interfere with his or her quality of life.

Objectives: To investigate stress and its associated factors among employees of a higher education institution through a cross-sectional study (at the baseline of a longitudinal study) including 176 individuals aged 18 years or older. Sociodemographic characteristics related to physical surroundings, lifestyle, working conditions, and health and illness were tested as explanatory variables.