Dataset Information

Workplace social capital and refraining from seeking medical care in Japanese employees: a 1-year prospective cohort study.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVES:We examined the association of workplace social capital (WSC), including structural and cognitive dimensions, with refraining from seeking medical care (RSMC) among Japanese employees. DESIGN:One-year prospective cohort study. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS:We surveyed 8770 employees (6881 men and 1889 women) aged 18-70 years from 12 firms in Japan using a self-administered questionnaire comprising the WSC scale and the items on potential confounders (ie, age, educational attainment and equivalent annual household income) at baseline (from April 2011 to March 2013). OUTCOME MEASURES:At a 1-year follow-up, we measured RSMC using a single-item question 'In the past year, have you ever refrained from visiting a hospital, clinic, acupuncturist or dentist despite your sickness (including a slight cold or cavity) or injury?' RESULTS:The results of Cox regression with robust variance showed that, after adjusting for potential confounders, the low WSC group (ie, the lowest tertile group) had a significantly higher relative risk (RR) of RSMC compared with the high WSC group (ie, the highest tertile group) among both men and women (overall WSC: RR 1.09 (95% CI 1.01 to 1.17) and 1.20 (95% CI 1.06 to 1.37); structural dimension: RR 1.13 (95% CI 1.04 to 1.22) and 1.25 (95% CI 1.07 to 1.45); and cognitive dimension: RR 1.11 (95% CI 1.03 to 1.20) and 1.21 (95% CI 1.06 to 1.38), respectively). Trend analysis using a continuous score of the WSC scale also showed a significant association of low WSC with a higher risk of RSMC among both men and women. CONCLUSIONS:Our findings suggest that the lack of social capital in the workplace is associated with RSMC among Japanese employees.

SUBMITTER: Inoue A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7401998 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Workplace social capital and refraining from seeking medical care in Japanese employees: a 1-year prospective cohort study.

Inoue Akiomi A Tsutsumi Akizumi A Eguchi Hisashi H Kachi Yuko Y Shimazu Akihito A Miyaki Koichi K Takahashi Masaya M Kurioka Sumiko S Enta Kazuhiko K Kosugi Yuki Y Totsuzaki Takafumi T Kawakami Norito N

BMJ open 20200803 8

<h4>Objectives</h4>We examined the association of workplace social capital (WSC), including structural and cognitive dimensions, with refraining from seeking medical care (RSMC) among Japanese employees.<h4>Design</h4>One-year prospective cohort study.<h4>Setting and participants</h4>We surveyed 8770 employees (6881 men and 1889 women) aged 18-70 years from 12 firms in Japan using a self-administered questionnaire comprising the WSC scale and the items on potential confounders (ie, age, educatio ...[more]

PMID: 32747350

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Project description:BackgroundA growing number of studies have sought to examine the health associations of workplace social capital; however, evidence of associations with overweight is sparse. We examined the association between individual perceptions of workplace social capital and overweight among Japanese male and female employees.Methodology/principal findingsWe conducted a cross-sectional survey among full-time employees at a company in Osaka prefecture in February 2012. We used an 8-item measure to assess overall and sub-dimensions of workplace social capital, divided into tertiles. Of 1050 employees, 849 responded, and 750 (624 men and 126 women) could be linked to annual health check-up data in the analysis. Binomial logistic regression models were used to calculate odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for overweight (body mass index: ≥ 25 kg/m(2), calculated from measured weight and height) separately for men and women. The prevalence of overweight was 24.5% among men and 14.3% among women. Among men, low levels of bonding and linking social capital in the workplace were associated with a nearly 2-fold risk of overweight compared to high corresponding dimensions of social capital when adjusted for age, sleep hours, physiological distress, and lifestyle. In contrast, among women we found lower overall and linking social capital to be associated with lower odds for overweight even after covariate adjustment. Subsequently, we used multinomial logistic regression analyses to assess the relationships between a 1 standard deviation (SD) decrease in mean social capital and odds of underweight/overweight relative to normal weight. Among men, a 1-SD decrease in overall, bonding, and linking social capital was significantly associated with higher odds of overweight, but not with underweight. Among women, no significant associations were found for either overweight or underweight.Conclusions/significanceWe found opposite gender relationships between perceived low linking workplace social capital and overweight among Japanese employees.

Project description:IntroductionWorkplace social capital (WSC) has been shown to affect employees' well-being and health, yet it is not clear how public managers can create WSC and which forms of WSC are most important. This study is the first prospective cohort study to examine the relationship between management behaviour, WSC, well-being and sickness absence. It uses a validated and detailed scale on WSC, which can distinguish between bonding, bridging, linking and organisational WSC over time. The study thereby provides rich data giving a much-needed detailed image of how WSC impacts on public employees' well-being and health. Additionally, the study pays special attention to the fact that these relationships can be different for different types of employees and therefore tests a set of relevant employee and context-related variables.Methods and analysisProject preparations in terms of agreements and data preparation of existing data started in 2019. This prospective cohort study considers and collects organisational data from 2016 to 2025. Annual employee surveys of more than 8000 employees (in a large Danish municipality) will be combined with register data in all years. This generates a unique cohort of public employees in different professions that are traceable over several years. The annual surveys include information on the management behaviour, WSC and employee outcomes. Fine-grained information on sickness absences will be matched for all employees and years under study. Moreover, confounders and the nested nature of the data will be considered.Ethics and disseminationApproval has been obtained from The Regional Committee on Health Research Ethics from Southern Denmark and from the University of Southern Denmark. The results will be presented at conferences and published in international peer-reviewed journals and in a practice-oriented monography targeted at public managers. The result will furthermore be disseminated to the involved employees through seminars and workshops in the participating organisations.

Dataset Information

Workplace social capital and refraining from seeking medical care in Japanese employees: a 1-year prospective cohort study.

Publications

Workplace social capital and refraining from seeking medical care in Japanese employees: a 1-year prospective cohort study.

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