Social support, social integration, and health-related quality of life over time: Results from the Fitness and Arthritis in Seniors Trial (FAST)

Abstract

The present study tested whether baseline perceived social support and social integration predicted baseline and follow-up measures of health-related quality of life for 364 older adults with osteoarthritis. The findings are secondary analyses of a randomized controlled trial of an exercise intervention. Multiple regression analyses indicate that perceived social support was related to baseline measures of functioning in psychological (depressive symptoms, social functioning, and life satisfaction) and physical domains (self-rated disability, observed physical function, and perceived health), after accounting for demographic and clinical status factors. At 18-month follow-up (additionally controlling for exercise intervention and baseline outcomes), social support significantly predicted changes in psychosocial functioning, but was unrelated to changes in self-reported and observed physical health. The findings indicate that social support is an important predictor of long-term psychosocial outcomes, but is less important than baseline clinical status for physical health endpoints in this cohort of older adults. In contrast, social integration was not a consistent predictor of outcomes.

Keywords:

• Social support
• quality of life
• osteoarthritis

Acknowledgement

Support for this study was provided by the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center of Wake Forest University through grant P60AG10484 from the National Institutes of Health, and through NIH/NIA training grant; Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, #T32AG00182. A previous version of this manuscript was presented as a poster at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of American, 1998, Philadelphia, PA.

Notes

Notes

[1] Preliminary analysis indicated that perceived social support interacted with treatment over the course of the FAST trial; therefore, terms representing the interaction of support with each treatment group were tested in analyses of follow-up data (social integration did not interact with treatment). However, since none of the interactions reached statistical significance, this information is not included in the text, but is available from the first author.