The objective of this study was to investigate the amount of social support received by female patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) compared to healthy controls. Two hundred and sixty-four patients and 61 healthy controls were assessed. Social support was assessed by the Social Support Questionnaire of Transactions (SSQT) measuring five different support types: Daily and problem-oriented emotional support, social companionship, and daily and problem-oriented instrumental support. Compared with healthy controls, RA patients reported significantly less daily emotional ( p = 0.024) and problem-oriented emotional support ( p = 0.024), as well as less social companionship ( p = 0.022) when network size and sociodemographic variables were controlled for. Furthermore, among older subjects (> 57 years) RA patients had a lower score on social companionship than controls. However, RA patients with few or no friends (< 4 friends) received more problem-oriented instrumental support than the controls.
Social support in female patients with rheumatoid arthritis compared to healthy controls
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