Social support and its influencing factors among urban occupational populations in Liaoning province

Objective To understand the status of social support among urban occupational populations and to explore factors associated with social support for developing related indicators.Methods With multi-stage stratified sampling, Dandong and Yingkou city were selected in Liaoning province.In the sample cities, 5 occupational populations including civil servants, scientific and technical personnel, administrative staff,teachers and physical workers aged 18-60 years were assessed with Social Support Rating Scale(SSRS).Results Totally 2 391 valid questionnaires were obtained.The SSRS score of the respondents was 40.80±8.64.In 5 occupational populations, civil servants had the highest total socre (43.92±7.88), followed by scientific and technical personnel (41.05±8.03), teachers(40.60±8.08), admin istrative staff(39.84±10.42), and physical workers(38.51±7.66) (P=0.000).The results of multiple linear regression showed that civil servants and married persons had higher total score and the respondents who were older or with higher education level or higher monthly income had higher total socres.Conclusion Physical workers had the poorest social support among the 5 occupational populations in Liaoning province.Social support status is a ssociated with age, education level,marital status, monthly income, and occupation.