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

Introduction: 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.

Methods: 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.

Results: 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.

Conclusion: The factors associated with social support should be properly analyzed in order to maintain this positive interaction in the work environment.