Year: 1995
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The purpose of this secondary analysis was to determine the relationship between social support and health in partners of people with multiple sclerosis, and to identify factors which affect this relationship.Data collected as part of the Family Health Study in 1993 served as the database for this analysis.Pearson correlation coefficients were computed to determine the relationship between social support and physical health, social support and psychological health, and social support and psychosocial health.Multiple regression was used to determine the influencing effect that social support, gender, degree of disability, age, geographic locale, and income had on the social support and health relationship.Significant correlations were demonstrated between social support and each of three health variables (physical health, psychological health, and psychosocial health).Nine percent of the variance in physical health, thirty-one percent of the variance in psychological health, and twenty-six percent of the variance in psychosocial health was attributed to social support, gender, degree of disability, age, degree of rurality, and income.A significant interaction effect was demonstrated between social support and gender, which influenced physical health.No significant interactions were found between social support and any of the variables that influenced psychological health or psychosocial health.Results from this study add further support to the volume of research linking social support and health.It is important that nursing care includes strategies for fostering, facilitating and evaluating the social support systems of partners experiencing a long-term illness with another person.
Author: Laura Burns
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Neurology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W270696759