Workplace Social Capital and All-Cause Mortality: A Prospective Cohort Study of 28 043 Public-Sector Employees in Finland

Abstract

Objectives. We examined the association between workplace social capital and all-cause mortality in a large occupational cohort from Finland.Methods. We linked responses of 28043 participants to surveys in 2000 to 2002 and in 2004 to national mortality registers through 2009. We used repeated measurements of self- and coworker-assessed social capital. We carried out Cox proportional hazard and fixed-effects logistic regressions.Results. During the 5-year follow-up, 196 employees died. A 1-unit increase in the mean of repeat measurements of self-assessed workplace social capital (range 1-5) was associated with a 19% decrease in the risk of all-cause mortality (age- and gender-adjusted hazard ratio [HR]=0.81; 95% confidence interval [CI) =0.66, 0.99). The corresponding point estimate for the mean of coworker-assessed social capital was similar, although the association was less precisely estimated (age- and gender-adjusted HR=0.77; 95% CI=0.50, 1.20). In fixed-effects analysis, a 1-unit increase in self-assessed social capital across the 2 time points was associated with a lower mortality risk (odds ratio=0.81; 95% CI=0.55, 1.19).Conclusions. Workplace social capital appears to be associated with lowered mortality in the working-aged population. (Am J Public Health. 2011;101: 1742-1748. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2011.300166)