Measuring the impact of social network and social support on health and quality of the life of the elderly

Abstract

Research works dealing with examination of the impact of social network and social support on health and quality of life (quality of life in connection with health), are based on a large number of different approaches to measuring these entities. Characteristics of a social network are measured by the number of network members, diversity of social contacts, continuity of contacts and network dropouts, communication mode, frequency of contacts, regularity. These measurements are a direct function of social support. Social support can be measured from the aspect of function: emotional, material, informational, support through social affiliation. Also, it may be viewed as an objective or a subjective parameter. Social support is measured using different scales. Three scales draw attention as all-around scales with the capacity to measure several functions, dimensions and aspects of social support. These are: Berlin Social-Support Scales (BSSS) (that were originally developed for the needs of oncosurgial clinics), Scale of multidimensional (social) support (MDSS), Multidimensional scale for estimate of perception of social support. Research of impact of social support on health has most often measured health by means of individual parameters or indices obtained from different scales or questionnaires used: self-rated health - SRH, the EuroQol Group - index EQ -5D - version with 3 levels and version with 5 levels. Quality of life is most often measured as a satisfaction with life or with an aspect of life. In research of impact of social support on quality of life subjective measurements have been used most often to estimate quality of life; most frequently, Index of Subjective Well Being (SWB) or the Life Satisfaction Index (LSI-A). Both are calculated as a score of values on a multistage Likert scale.