Effect of work organization and demands, violence, health problems and job satisfaction in relation to work stress and social support in prison officers: a cross-sectional study; São Paulo, 2019.

OBJECTIVE

Analyze the effect of work organization and demands, violence, health problems and job satisfaction in relation to work stress and social support in prison officers.

METHODS

This is a cross-sectional study with prison police officers from four penitentiaries in São Paulo. The Demand-Control-Support Questionnaire was used and adjusted multinomial regressions were performed to obtain the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95%CI).

RESULTS

A total of 265 prison officers participated in the study, and poor satisfaction levels with temperature (OR 4.88; 95%CI 2.02; 11.81) and ventilation (OR 3.12; 95%CI 1.31; 7.41) were found to be associated with high-demand work. Furthermore, working more than 15 years as a prison officer (OR 2.59; 95%CI 1.33; 5.08), reporting physical violence (OR 2.84; 95%CI 1.02; 7.93), psychological violence (OR 2.93; 95%CI 1.55; 5.53), poor satisfaction level with lighting (OR 2.80; 95%CI 1.11; 7.08), noise (OR 3.94; 95%CI 2.15; 7.21), ventilation (OR 2.15; 95%CI 1.20; 3.85), and furniture (OR 2.92; 95%CI 1.52; 5.60) in the workplace were associated with lower social support.

CONCLUSION

The worst level of satisfaction with temperature and ventilation was associated with highly demanding work. Furthermore, suffering violence, greater physical demands, and a lower level of satisfaction with workplace conditions were associated with less social support. The need for improvements in infrastructure and in the organization of the work process is highlighted.