Social Support

Background: Depression is a common yet often unrecognized consequence of stroke, affecting between 20-50% of all survivors. Reported underlying factors affecting depression in acute and chronic stroke include: functional disability, lesion location, time since stroke, female gender, age, cognitive impairment, history of major depression, low social support, poor quality of life, and inferior sleep quality.

Purpose: To examine potential independent predictors of depressive symptoms in chronic stroke.

 In the ongoing Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative Program study, we are testing the impact of Function-Focused Care, which is an approach to care in which we work with assisted living (AL) residents and staff to optimize the functional and physical activities of residents during daily activity. The purpose of this article is to evaluate life satisfaction of AL residents with a focus on the impact of physical activity.

 Patterns of mental health are clearly associated with life circumstances, including educational and economic opportunities, access to safe and supportive neighborhoods, socially structured exposures to stressors and to supportive relationships. In this article, we examine the social and economic correlates of depressive symptoms among African American women residing within a predominantly African American urban neighborhood in Detroit, USA, with relatively few economic resources.

 Purpose/Objectives: To examine the relationship between women’s reported social support and their adherence to recommended breast cancer screening guidelines.
Design: Descriptive, cross-sectional survey.
Setting: Community women’s organizations throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
Sample: 833 mostly low-income women with a mean age of 46.2 years from three racial or ethnic groups (i.e., Latina, Caucasian, and African American) who were not breast cancer survivors.

Prostate cancer affects African Americans at a higher rate than any other ethnic group in the United States. Prostate cancer does not only affect the man with the disease but also affects those individuals who are closest to him, such as his family and friends. Open communication is valuable in coping with stressors that are affiliated with chronic illnesses. This article focuses on family and friend social support of men with prostate cancer.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of family and friends on the management of persons with diabetes and their willingness to be involved in a culturally tailored program. METHODS: This qualitative study was based within a larger quasi-experimental study that focused on the impact of a culturally tailored group intervention compared with individual standard diabetes education on the outcomes of self-management and glycemic control among rural African Americans with type 2 diabetes.