THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SOCIAL SUPPORT AND QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG THE ELDERLY PEOPLE WITH CHRONIC ILLNESSES IN THE RURAL COMMUNITY
Keywords:
Social Support, Quality of life, Elderly, Chronic IllnessAbstract
Purpose: In the recent decade, elderly people who live longer tends to have chronic diseases that interfere negatively with the quality of their lives, that is why those elderly are in need of social support in order to improve their quality of life. In apropos, one of the main goals of Healthy People 2020 is to enhance the quality and lengthen the years of healthy life of older people by providing social support. The present study was aimed to examine the association between social support and quality of life among the elderly people with chronic illnesses in the rural community.
Methodology: A cross-sectional descriptive design was carried out to describe the social support dimensions and quality of life domains, and a correlational design was conducted to examine the association between social support and quality of life among the elderly people with chronic illnesses in the rural community. Study sample: A convenience sampling technique was used to recruit 185 elderly persons who are eligible for inclusion criteria to participate in this research. Research Setting: The data were collected from May, 2017 to August, 2017. This study was conducted in the rural community during home visits where the study sample of the elderly participants was recruited from their homes in Shebin Al-Kom capital city, Menuofiya Governorate, Egypt. Tools: Face to face interview questionnaire was conducted which included four instruments I. Socio-demographic characteristics; II. Interpersonal Social Support Evaluation List (ISEL); III. World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL); and IV. The Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI).
Results: The result of this study indicates that social support was significantly correlated with age, gender, marital status, levels of education, patterns of living arrangement, and types of family. Meanwhile, there is no statistical significant correlation between social support and severity of the co - morbid condition. Correlation coefficient analysis showed that a positive correlation between social support and quality of life where the older participant group who perceived more social support had better quality of life compared to the group who are not perceived social support. Older adult participants who categorized in the current study as young-old group (60-74 yr.), male, married, highly educated, and who are living with their family, particularly elderly who are living with the extended family, they are more experience to perceived social support which contributing positively to have a better quality of life compared to the elderly people who are not perceived social support.
Conclusion and Recommendations: Social support is a contributing factor to enhance quality of life among the older adult participants. Therefore, this study recommended that all the health care providers, particularly the nurses to perform a careful investigation of older adults through review of factors that might be directly affected social support and may have influence on their quality of life. Hence the professional nurse can play an important part in recognizing the elderly adults who may potentially be experiencing loss of social support and need a referral for providing a social support to avoid deterioration of the quality of their lives.
Downloads
References
2. The World Population Prospects ( 2015) Revision.
http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/.
3. World Population Ageing Report (2015) - the United Nations
4. United Nations , New York (2015). Population 2030- Demographic challenges and
opportunities for sustainable development planning.
http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/pdf/trends/ Population2030.pdf
5. Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS-2016). Arab Republic
of Egypt.
http://www.msrintranet.capmas.gov.eg.
6. Sweed H.S.(2016). Review Articles Population Ageing - Egypt Report.
7. Bélanger E., Ahmed T., Vafaei A., Curcio C., Phillips F., Zunzunegui M.(2016).
Sources of social support associated with health and quality of life: A Cross-Sectional
Study among Canadian and Latin American older adults. BMJ Open; 6:e011503.
doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2016-011503.
8. White A.M., Philogene G.S., Fine L., Sinha S. (2009). Social Support and
Self-Reported Health Status of Older Adults in the United States. Am J public health,
1872-1878.
9. Kumar S., Calvo R., Avendano M., et al. (2012). Social support, volunteering and
health around the world: cross-national evidence from 139 countries. Soc Sci
Med 2012;74:696–706.
10. Tajvar M., Arab M., MontazeriA. (2008). Determine of Health related quality of
life in elderly in Tehran, Iran, BMC Public Health,8:323 doi:10.1186/1471-2458-8-
323.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2567978/pdf/1471-2458-8323.pdf.
11. Faul F., Erdfelder E., Buchner A., Lang A.G.(2009). G Power is a free power
analysis program for a variety of statistical tests.
12. Delistamati E., Samakouri M.A., Davis E.A., Vorvolakos T., Xenitidis K., Livaditis
M. (2006). Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL)--college version: validation
and application in a Greek sample. Int J Soc Psychiatry. Nov;52(6):552-60.
13. Cohen S., & Hoberman H. (1983). Positive events and social supports as buffers of
life change stress. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 13, 99-125.
14. Skevington S.M., Lofty M., O'Connell K.A. (2004). The World Health Organization's
WHOQOL-BREF quality of life assessment: psychometric properties and results of
the international field trial. A report from the WHOQOL group. Qual Life Res.
;13:299–310. [PubMed]
15. Anna M., Maxime D. (2014). Comorbidity indices. Clin Exp Rheumatol; 32 (Suppl.
85): S131- S134.
16. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20, Chicago, IL, USA.
Retrieved from http://www. spss.com/SPSS/.
17. Dai Y., Zhang C., Zhang B., Li Z., Jiang C., Huang H. (2016). Social support and the
self-rated health of older people A comparative study in Tainan Taiwan and Fuzhou
Fujian province . Medicine 95:24(e3881) .
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000003881
18. Ning L. , Lingxia Z. , Zhe L. and Jue W. (2013). Health-related quality of life and
long-term care needs among elderly individuals living alone: a cross-sectional study
in rural areas of Shaanxi Province,China. BMC Public Health, 13:313.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/13/313.
19. Yang X., Hao Y., George S.M., Wang L.(2012). Factors associated with health-
related quality of life among Chinese caregivers of the older adults living in the
community: a cross-sectional study. Health Qual Life Outcomes, 10(1):143.
20. Serap U., Ozgul E., and Necdet S. (2016). Social Support and Qualıty of Life Among
Older Adults. International Journal of Caring Sciences January – April , Volume
9 | Issue 1| Page 249.
21. Marek B., Monika B., and Irena M.(2013). Self-rated quality of life of city-dwelling
elderly people benefitting from social help: Results of a cross-sectional study.
Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 11:181.
22. Eleni M. G., Maria K., Allison W., Tasneem I. Aziz Sheikh (2014). Social support for
South Asian Muslim parents with life-limiting illness living in Scotland: A
multi-perspective qualitative study. BMJ 2014;4:e004252.
doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2013-004252.
23. Orfila F., Ferrer M., Lamarca R., Tebe C., Domingo-Salvany A., Alonso J. (2006).
Gender differences in health-related quality of life among the elderly: the role of
objective functional capacity and chronic conditions. Social Science and Medicine,
63: 2367-2380.
24. Penning M.J., Wu Z. (2014). Marital status, childlessness, and social support among
older Canadians. Can J Aging;33:426–7.
25. Hewitt B., Turrell G., Giskes K. (2012). Marital loss, mental health and the role of
perceived social support: findings from six waves of an Australian population based
panel study. J Epidemiol Comm Health ;66:308–14.
26. Akinyemi A.I. (2012). Assessment of the influence of socio-economic status on aging
males' symptoms in ljesaland. South-Western Nigeria. Journal of Mens Health,
9(1):51–57.
27. Tian M., Chen Y., Zhao R., Chen L., Chen X., Feng D., Feng Z. (2011). Chronic
disease knowledge and its determinants among chronically ill adults in rural areas of
Shanxi. Province in China: a cross-sectional study. BMC Publ Health, 11:948.
28. Lasheras C., Patterson A.M., Casado C., Fernandez S. (2001). Effects of education on
the quality of life, diet, and cardiovascular risk factors in an elderly Spanish
community
population. Exp Aging Res, 27(3):257–270.
29. Shin S.H. & Sok S.R. (2012). A comparison of the factors influencing life satisfaction
between Korean older people living with family and living alone. International
Nursing Review 59(2): 252-258.
30. Öz F. (2002). Last stage of life: old age, a psychossocial view.) Kriz Dergisi 10(2):
17- 28 .
http://dergiler.ankara.edu.tr/dergiler/21/103/7
31. Fratiglioni L. (2004) An active and socially integrated life style in late life might
protect vagainst dementia. Lancet Neurol. 3:343-53.
32. Litwin H. (2010). Social networks and well-being: a comparison of older people in
Mediterranean and non-Mediterranean countries. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci;
65B:599–608.
33. Zunzunegui M.V., Koné A., Johri M.(2004). Social networks and self-rated
health in two French-speaking Canadian community dwelling populations over 65.
Soc Sci Med; 58:2069–81.
34. Cecchini S., Martínez R. (2012). Inclusive social protection in Latin America: a
comprehensive, rights- based approach. SSRN J.
http://ssrn.com/abstract=2009321.
35. Horasan G.D. (2013). Quality of life. In Turkey Chronic Disease and Risk Factors
Field Research. Ergör G, Ünal B. (Eds.) Publication No: 909, Anıl Press Ltd.Şti.
Ankara, p. 253-258. Available at: http://thsk.saglik.gov. tr/Dosya/kronik_hastali
klar/tkh-final-raporu-tr.pdf.
36. Kalaça S. (2013). Blood pressure and hypertension. In Turkey Chronic Disease and
Risk Factors Field Research. Ergör G, Ünal B. (Eds.) Publication No: 909, Anıl Press
Ltd.Şti. Ankara, p. 69-74.
http://thsk.saglik.gov.tr/Dosya/kronik_hastali klar/tkh-final-raporu-tr.pdf (Accessed
January 10, 2015)
37. Ann M. W., Stephane Ph., Lawrence F. (2009). Social Support and Self-Reported
Health Status of Older Adults in the United States. American Journal of Public Health
October , Vol 99, No.10.
38. Xu J., Qiu J., Chen J., Zou L., Feng L., Lu Y., Wei Q., (2012). Zhang J: Lifestyle and
health- related quality of life . A cross-sectional study among civil servants in China.
BMC Publ Health, 12:330.
39. Oliva-Moreno J., Lopez-Bastida J., Worbes-Cerezo M., Serrano-Aguilar P. ( 2010).
Health related quality of life of Canary Island citizens. BMC Publ Health, 10:675.
40. Varsha S. (2017). Social support and quality of life among elderly. International
Journal for innovation research in multidisciplinary field. ISSN-2455-0620,Volume-
3, Issue-2,Feb.
41. Chen H., Meng T. ( 2015). Bonding, bridging, and linking social capital and self-
rated health among Chinese adults: use of the anchoring vignettes technique. PLoS
One;10:e0142300.
42. Hurtado D., Kawachi I., Sudarsky J. (2011) . Social capital and self-rated health in
Colombia: the good, the bad and the ugly. Soc Sci Med;72: 584–90.
43. Garcia E.L., Banegas J.R., Perez-Regadera A.G., et al. (2005). Social network and
health- related quality of life in older adults: a population based study in Spain. Qual
Life Res 14:511– 520.
44. Kahn J.H., Hessling R. M., Russell D.W. (2003). Social support, health, and well-
being among the elderly: What is the role of negative affectivity? Personality and
Individual Differences, 35: 5–17.
45. Garousi S., Garrusi B., Sadat K.B.(2013). Does perceived family support has a
relation with depression and anxiety in an Iranian diabetic sample? International
Journal of Caring Sciences Sep-Dec 6(3):361-368.
46. Monserud M.A. and Wong R. (2015). Depressive Symptoms among Older Mexicans:
The Role of Widowhood, Gender, and Social Integration. Res Aging Jan 21.pii:
0164027514568104 .
47. Deshmukh P.R., Dangre A.R., Rajendran K.P., Kumar S. (2015). Role of social,
cultural and economic capitals in perceived quality of life among old age people in
Kerala, India. Indian J Palliat Care Jan-Apr; 21(1):39-44.
48. Wang J., Wang J., Cao Y., Jia S., Wu B. (2018). Perceived Empowerment, Social
Support, and Quality of Life Among Chinese Older Residents in Long-Term Care
Facilities. J Aging Health. Dec;30(10):1595-1619. doi:
10.1177/0898264318795724. Epub 2018 Sep 3.
49. Lin W., Chen M., Cheng J. (2014). The promotion of active aging in Taiwan. Ageing
Int.;39:81–96.
50. Wacker R.R., Roberto K.A. (2013). Aging Social policies: an International Perspective. Sociologicky Čas;49:464–7.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.
