The effect of perceived social support on postoperative pain and daily living activities of the patients undergoing orthopedic surgery

The study was conducted as a descriptive and correlational study to examine the effect ofperceived social support on postoperative pain and daily living activities of the patients undergoing orthopedic surgery. The sample of the study consisted of 200 patients who were hospitalized in the "Keşan State Hospital Orthopedic Surgery Clinic" and underwent orthopedic surgery between February and July 2022. Data were collected using the "Patient Information Form", "Visual Analog Scale", "Multidimensional Perceived Social Support Scale " and "KATZ of Daily Life Activities Scale" were used to collect data. Ethics committee and institutional permission was obtained before the study. SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) version 26 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) program was used in the statistical analysis of the study. When the results obtained in the study were evaluated, the average score of the patients on the social support scale was 59.89±22.66 (range: 12-84) points and was at a moderate level, the average pain score from the 0th day to the 5th day after surgery was 6.10±1.81, 5.96±1,94, 5.06±1.98, 4.26±1.83, 3.59±1.71 ve 3.15±1.49 respectively and moderate level (p<0.05), the total mean score of the KATZ of Daily Life Activities Scale of the patients was calculated as 14.69±2.15 (range: 7-18) and according to these results, they were found to be independent in their daily living activities. It was found that as the perceived social support score increased the pain score decreased(p<0.001), there was a strong positive relationship between perceived social support and activities of daily living(p<0.001), a strong negative relationship between perceived social support and pain score(p<0.001), and a strong negative relationship between pain score and activities of daily living(p<0.001). As a result, as the level of perceived social support increases, postoperative pain decreases and independence in daily living activities increases.