Abstract
Research has demonstrated facilitative effects of social support on psychological and physical well-being of individuals suffering from chronic health problems. Social support can change not only patients’ perception of their health problems, but also the consequences of their illness. In the present study with cervix cancer patients, the relationship of social support and illness control agency with illness consequences and health outcome beliefs was examined. Emotional, informational, social companionship and practical supports were found to be negatively correlated with the severity of interpersonal, physiological and psychological consequences of illness. Patients’ belief in self-control and doctor-control was related to less severity and less pain of illness, and strong hope for better health outcomes.
Highlights
An important development to take place in medical sciences during the last decades is the recognition of psychological factors in the origin, development, treatment and management of physical health problems
The hypothesis, that social support would be negatively associated with perceived consequences, pain and severity of illness, and positively with hope for better outcomes of illness, was strongly supported by the findings
All components of social support had negative relationship with interpersonal, physiological, and psychological consequences as well as with pain and severity of cancer, and a positive relationship with hope. These results are consonant with studies, carried out with other kind of patients, in indicating that people with strong social support psychologically adjust better to stressful events, and that perceived availability of social support has a positive effect on physical and psychological well-being [12,43,44]
Summary
An important development to take place in medical sciences during the last decades is the recognition of psychological factors in the origin, development, treatment and management of physical health problems. Improvement in people’s quality of life is another important concern, especially in the case of chronic health problems, which pose serious threat to human life. Chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cancer, arthritis, asthma, tuberculosis and heart attack, are a major cause of morbidity in many developing countries, including India [1]. Cancer is one of the ten leading causes of death in India.
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