The relationship between social support and quality of life in patients with heart failure

Abstract

Introduction: Social support can improve the low quality of life (QoL) of patientswith HF in order to properly manage the symptoms of the disease, maintaining thephysical and emotional well-being of people with HFAim: The main purpose of this research study was to investigate the relationship between social support and QoL in patients with HFMethods: It is a descriptive correlation study. The population of the study iscomprised from 117 patients with HF who were hospitalized in the cardiologydepartments and patients who visited the outpatient clinics staging NYHA I-IV,during the period 2010 to 2013. The data were collected by completing theGreek versions of the questionnaires Multidimensional scale of perceived socialsupport (MSPSS) and Minnesota Lining with Heart Failure Questionnaire(MLHFQ). Pearson tests were conducted and as well as Hierarchical RegressionAnalysis. This study is part of the research project MEETinCY.Results: The total score of MSPSS has a moderate negative correlation with thetotal score of MLHFQ (r = -0.31 p < 0.01). Lower values of QoL are associated withhigher rates of Social support, which means that people with better QoL tend toreport greater perceived social support. Furthermore, the overall rating of MSPPSare signicantly associated with the physical (r = -0.36 p < 0.05) and emotionaldimension (r = -0.24, p = 0.05), but not with the social dimension of QoL (r = 0.05,p = 0.98). The hierarchical regression analysis showed that the gender (p = 0.042)and NYHA staging affect the relationship between social support and QoL.Conclusions: The current results indicate that the lack of social support has anegative impact on the QoL of patients with HF.