Workplace and community social capital and burnout among professionals of health and welfare services for the seniors: A multilevel analysis in Japan

OBJECTIVE: Despite the potential of the social capital approach in preventing burnout, there is sparse evidence of its contextual effect. This study aimed to reveal the contextual association of workplace and community social capital on burnout among professionals of health and welfare services for seniors in Japan. METHODS: We collected data from a cross‐sectional questionnaire survey for all health and welfare professionals working in Community Comprehensive Support Centers (CCSCs) in the central Tokyo area in 2015. We assessed burnout using the Japanese version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory, which consists of three subscales: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. We prepared social capital items regarding workplace (the CCSC the participants belonged to) and community (the current catchment area of the CCSC). We aggregated individual responses of workplace and community social capital within each CCSC to create group‐level workplace and community social capital indicators. RESULTS: Among the 1771 questionnaires distributed, we analyzed 1110 from 211 CCSCs. Multilevel analysis showed that higher group‐level workplace social capital was significantly associated with lower scores of all three subscales after adjusting for covariates. Moreover, we found a significant association between greater group‐level community social capital and lower scores of depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment. CONCLUSION: Working in workplaces and communities with higher social capital is related to lower burnout. The findings suggest that strategies to enhance the social capital of their workplace and community would be beneficial in the prevention of burnout among professionals in the field of health and social welfare.