Medicina Ocupacional y Asuntos de Salud

Abstracto

Social Support in the Workplace and Work-related Injury in Canada: A Cross-sectional Analysis

Afshin Vafaei and Vicki L Kristman

Objective: To determine the associations between social support at work and work-related injuries. Methods: Canadian Community Health Survey data were used to measure repetitive strain injury and most serious injuries among respondents working in the past year. High, medium, or low workplace social support was determined by responses to questions about workplace conflict, supervisor and co-worker helpfulness. Results: Both males and females reporting high social support were less likely to report a work-related repetitive strain injury (female odds ratio = 0.45; 95% CI= 0.32-0.63; male odds ratio = 0.64; 95% CI: 0.43-0.96). Workplace social support was not associated with the most serious injury. Conclusions: We found an association between workplace social support and repetitive strain injury at work. Future studies need to examine this association prospectively to establish the causality of the association.