Association of social support with quality of life in patients with polyneuropathy

作者：Maxwell Sarah K; Barnett Carolina; Kokokyi Seint; Leung Joanne C; Yu Jingjie J; Bril Vera; Katzberg Hans D^*

来源：Journal of the Peripheral Nervous System, 2013, 18(1): 37-43.

DOI：10.1111/jns5.12005

• neuropathy
• outcomes
• quality of life
• social support

The aim of this study was to examine the impact of social support on quality of life (QoL) in patients with polyneuropathy. One hundred and fifty-four patients with polyneuropathy were enrolled from a neuromuscular clinic. The QoL Instrument and the Medical Outcome Study-Social Support Survey (MOS-SSS) were used to assess QoL and social support, respectively. Disease severity and clinical factors were also assessed. Neuropathy patients had a lower QoL compared to a previously published normative sample (p<0.0001) and an MOS-SSS comparable to other patients with chronic disease. Social support correlated weakly with the self esteem and emotional well being mental health dimensions (rs:0.200.38) but not the physical health QoL (PH-QoL) domains. Physical and mental QoL also correlated significantly with presence of pain (rs: 0.39 and 0.42, respectively) and number of autonomic symptoms (rs: 0.39 and 0.30, respectively). Social support independently predicts MH-QoL when controlling for age, gender, pain, and the Toronto Clinical Neuropathy Score (TCNS; p<0.0001). TCNS and gender are independently related to PH-QoL (p<0.05). This study demonstrates that improved social support serves as an independent predictor of MH-QoL when controlling for age, gender, pain, and severity of neuropathy. Future studies examining the effects of improving social support on QoL in patients with polyneuropathy are recommended.

• 出版日期2013-3