Epidemiology: Open Access
Open Access

Abstract

Background: There are a variety of factors from work and daily life who affect the physical and mental health of occupational groups, then affect their work ability. Social capital as a characteristic of social life includes network, norms and trust. Researchers have reported that social capital is an important social factor that affects health, but the impact mechanism is not very clear at present. The purpose of this study is to explore and clarify the connections between workplace social capital and the physical and mental health of employees and work ability, and to provide new directions and strategies for Occupational Health Promotion and Workplace Health Management. Methods: 3988 employees from 14 workplaces in Pudong New Area were investigated with professional scale questionnaire through stratified cluster sampling. We used the structural equation modeling to examine the associations between worker�s basic information, occupational characteristics, physical and mental health, workplace social capital and work ability. Results: Worker�s basic information, the physical and mental health and the level of workplace social capital are the direct influencing factors of work ability, and the employee's self-rated health and mental health level are the most important factors. In addition, employee�s workplace social capital directly affects their mental health. Conclusions: Workplace social capital is an important factor in employee�s health and work ability. Policies and measures for raising workplace social capital would help improve employee�s mental health level and their work ability. The study provides an important research direction for Occupational Health Promotion and Workplace Health Management; also it provided a strong evidence for the measures of improving the team cohesion to increase enterprise productivity.

Biography

Jing Wang, Chief Physician, has her expertise in health education and promotion and passion in improving the health and wellbeing. During more than 20 years, in her career as Director of the Department of Health Education and Promotion in Shanghai Pudong CDC, she organized and participated in various research projects of a national and provincial level. For her knowledge ability and seasoning after years of experience in research, practice and administration, she has been appointed as the member of branches of Chinese Preventive Medicine Association, Shanghai Preventive Medicine Association and Shanghai Physicians' Association, while holding the title of concurrently tutor in public health, adjunct professor and extramural academic advisor at universities. Majoring in health education and promotion, she has been studied on theories and models of health-related behaviour intervention among specific population groups for years. Dozens of related articles and papers are published in core journals and others.