Association of Occupational Stress and Social Support with Health-related Behaviors among Chinese Offshore Oil Workers

Abstract

To explore the relationship of occupational stress and social support with health-related behaviors of smoking, alcohol usage and physical inactivity, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among 561 offshore oil installation workers of a Chinese state-owned oil company. They were investigated with a self-administered questionnaire about socio-demographic characteristics, occupational stress, social support and health-related behaviors. Logistic regression analysis was used to study the association between occupational stress, social support and health-related behaviors and adjusted for age, educational level, marital status, duration of offshore work and job title. Of 561 workers, 218 (38.9%) were current smokers, 124 (22.1%) current drinkers, and 354 (63.1%) physically inactive in their leisure time. Further multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that: (1) Current smoking was significantly negatively related with perceived stress from "Safety" (OR=0.74; 95% CI=0.58~0.94) and lack of supervisors' instrumental support (OR=0.34; 95% CI=0.18~0.65); (2) Current drinking was significantly positively related to perceived stress from "Interface between job and family/social life" (OR=1.32; 95% CI=1.02~1.70) and "Organizational structure" (OR=1.35; 95% CI=1.06~1.74), but was significantly negatively related to poor emotional support from friends (OR=0.54; 95% CI=0.62~0.96); (3) Physical inactivity after work was significantly positively associated with perceived stress from "Safety" (OR=1.44; 95% CI=1.16~1.79) and lack of instrumental support from both supervisors (OR=1.74; 95% CI=1.16~2.65) and friends (OR=1.68; 95% CI=1.06~2.42). The findings suggest that psychosocial factors of occupational stress and social support at offshore oil work might affect workers' health-related behaviors in different ways.