Abstract
BackgroundWith an increasing number of critically ill patients, attention should be paid to both their physical health and mental health. The objective of this study is to examine the links between depression and social capital among critically ill patients.MethodsData for 1043 patients with critical illnesses was collected with a stratified cluster random sampling method in rural Shandong, China. Depression symptoms were measured using a short form version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD-10) and the total scores of them were dichotomized. We associated structural social capital with social networks, social participation, and social support. Cognitive social capital includes the degree of availability of social trust and reciprocity. Binary logistic regression was used to explore whether social capital was significantly associated with depression among patients with critical illnesses.ResultsWe found that 68.5% of the critically ill patients in our sample population had depression. CESD-10 scores were negatively correlated with social capital, including occupations of their frequent contacts, social trust in relatives and friends, distance to the nearest medical institution and medical assistance convenience from non-spouse. In addition, low economic status, and low self-rated health were more significantly correlated with depression in critically ill patients.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that more attention should be paid to the mental health of critically ill patients and more formal society, community and government support form given, particularly in rural China.
Highlights
With an increasing number of critically ill patients, attention should be paid to both their physical health and mental health
When we look at the relationship between social capital and mental health, social capital is strongly correlated with access to social support, both of which can act as a buffer against mental disorders [9, 43, 44]
Natural logarithmic transformation was performed on continuous variables that have a maximum influence, such as number of group activities participated in the last month and distance to the nearest medical institution
Summary
With an increasing number of critically ill patients, attention should be paid to both their physical health and mental health. The objective of this study is to examine the links between depression and social capital among critically ill patients. Critical illnesses, such as cancer, refractory diseases, etc., usually refers to diseases that are typically costly, longlasting, difficult to cure, and significantly affect the productivity and quality of life of patients and their families [1]. Critical illnesses are growing increasingly common globally, for example, cancer rates have increased, with new cases of cancer ranged from 14.9 million to 18.1 million, and their associated death. Previous researchers concluded that social networks, and social participations promoted health and decreased depression [11, 12]
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