The relationship between perceived social support and functional status, quality of life and depression in stroke patients

Objective: Stroke is an important health problem leading to serious functional and cognitive impairment and affecting the quality of life of patients. Social support is defined as the emotional and practical assistance help to a stressed or distressed individual by people (spouses, family, friends) around them. It is thought that social support positively affects the treatment process of stroke patients. We aimed to demonstrate the relationship of perceived social support level with functional status, quality of life and depression in stroke patients. Materials and Methods: Fifty patients with stroke (34 males, 16 females) who were admitted in Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University Medical Faculty Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinic between the dates April 2018 and October 2018 were included in this study. Demographic and clinical characteristic of patients including age, gender, marital status, occupational-educational status, duration of disease, etiology of stroke (ischemic-hemorrhagic), affected side, accompanying diseases and the degree of closeness with caregiver were recorded. Perceived social support were assesded by ''Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support'', functional status by ''Barthel Index'', quality of life by ''Stroke Specific Quality of Life Scale'' and depression by ''Beck Depression Scale''. Statistical significance was accepted as P <0.05. Results: The mean age was 56.70 ± 10.78 years; range 33 to 85 years in stroke patients. The mean age of the female patients was 53.81 ± 10.16 years, and the mean age of the male patients was 58.06 ± 10.94 years. There was a significant relationship between social support and functional status (p=0.027). Lower social support is associated with worse functional status. The social support level was found significantly lower in patients with totally/severe dependent than those of the other groups (p=0.027). There was no significant relationship between family support and functional status, but there was a significant correlation between functional status and friends support, and significant others support (p=0.477 p=0.022 p =0.021, respectively). The friends support and significant others support scores were significantly lower in the totally/severe dependent patients than those in the patients with high functional status. There was a strong positive correlation between the quality of life and level of perceived social support (r= 0,552 p<0,001). Based on the analysis of social support subscales datas, there was a moderate positive correlation between the quality of life and family support whereas the the quality of life demonstrated a strong positive correlation with friends support and significant others support (r= 0,423 p=0,002 ; r= 0,519 p<0,001; r= 0,526 p<0,001 respectively). There was a significant relationship between depression and the perceived social support levels. Beck depression scores were significantly higher in patients with low social support (p= 0.001). Based on the analysis of social support subscales datas, there was a significant relationship between depression and the family support, friends support, and significant others support (p= 0.011, p = 0.001, p = 0.003, respectively). There was no significant relationship between sociodemographic characteristics and perceived social support (p>0.05). Conclusion: This study revealed a significant relationship between perceived social support level and functional status, quality of life and depression in stroke patients. The concept of social support has been shown to be an important factor in stroke rehabilitation. The creation of new intervention programs for social support will contribute to the rehabilitation treatment of stroke patients. Key words: Stroke, perceived social support, quality of life, depression, functional status