What Type of Social Support Do Heart Failure Patients Need?

Abstract

Patients with heart failure (HF) commonly have a high physical and emotional symptom burden along with poor health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Social support may contribute to improvement of symptoms and HRQOL, but there are multiple ways to operationalize social support. The purpose of this study was to determine what type of social support was associated with symptoms and HRQOL. Patients (N = 75, 72 years old, 67% male, 99% New York Heart Association [NYHA] class II/III) provided data on physical symptom status, depression, social support (family and health care provider relationships, instrumental support, social networks, and emotional support), and HRQOL. Family relationship assessed cohesive and conflicting relationships among family members. Health care provider relationship assessed patients' trust in their physicians or nurses. Instrument support assessed visible, practical support in managing diet, symptom, house tasks, and financial situation. Social networks assessed the magnitude of social network using number of significant other contacting regularly. Emotional support assessed patients' perceptions on invisible, emotional support from family, friends, and significant other. Demographic and clinical characteristics were also collected. Multiple regression was used to analyze the data. Among family and health care provider relationships, instrumental support, social networks, and emotional support, only emotional support was significantly related to symptom status (F = 11.19, p = .001), depression (F = 15.78, p < .001), and HRQOL (F = 4.28, p = .042). Invisible, emotional support was more important than visible and practical support and simple relationship. Further studies are needed to determine how to improve emotional support effectively, and whether improvement of emotional support leads to improvement in physical and emotional symptom status and HRQOL.