The effect of social support on drug addiction and self-effectiveness in elderly with COPD and/or Asthma

The aim of the study is to determine the Effect of Social Support on Medication Adherence and Self-Efficacy in the Elderly with COPD and/or Asthma. The study sample consisted of 138 patients who applied to Ordu state hospital and met the study criteria. The research was completed within 3 months between 01.05.202201.08.2022. Patient and drug information form, multidimensional perceived social support scale and self-efficacy scale were used to collect data. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS 23 program. Due to the normal distribution of the scale data, t-Test from parametric tests and ANOVA test were used for the Comparison of Group Means in more than two groups. Pearson correlation test was applied to measure the strength of the relationship between the two variables between the scales and their relationships with each other. 38.4% of the participants were female and 61.6% were male patients. 36.2% of the participants were diagnosed with COPD, 28.3% with asthma, 35.5% with patients diagnosed with COPD and asthma. The mean age of the individuals was 74.37±7.900, the duration of diagnosis was 14.4±14.5, the number of hospitalizations was 4.01±6.33, and the number of daily drug use was 4.49±2.50. The mean score of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support was 47.25±17.16, and the mean score of the Self-Efficacy Efficiency Scale was 71.26±9.11. According to the results of the correlation analysis; There is a low negative correlation between the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support in general and the Self-Efficacy Efficacy Scale in general (r: -0.241). As a result, as individuals' Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support scores increase, their self-efficacy levels decrease. We suggest that patients and their relatives should be educated on the disease, social support, self-efficacy, and drug compliance, intensifying the training and transforming it into a health policy, and investigating the dependency aspect of social support. Keywords: COPD, asthma, social support, self-efficacy, medication adherence, nursing.