The Correlation Between Social Support and Self-Care Agency in Elderly Patients with Hypertension

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this descriptive study is to investigate the relationship between social support and self-care agency in elderly patients who are hypertensive.
METHODS: This study was conducted with 150 patients who were hypertensive aged ≥65 who applied to the cardiology outpatient clinic of Firat University Hospital (Elazığ, Turkey). Patient information form, including sociodemographic and disease-related data, Self-Care Agency Scale, and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support were used for data collection. Independent t-test for pairwise comparison, Kruskal-Wallis test for multiple group comparison, and Pearson’s correlation analysis for correlation between the study variables were used to assess the data.
RESULTS: The correlation analysis made between self-care agency and social support revealed that self-care agency had a positive and significant correlation with family support (r=0.944, P <.001), friend support (r=.380, P <.001), significant other support (r=.386, P <.001), and total support (r=.406, P <.001). It was found that patients with high self-care agency mean scores had high mean scores of support from family, friends, and significant other and total support.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: This study revealed that there was a significant correlation between self-care agency and social support in elderly patients who are hypertensive and that social support increased self-care agency. According to these results, attention should be paid to the social support used by patients who are hypertensive.