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Physical Comorbidity and Health Literacy Mediate the Relationship Between Social Support and Depression Among Patients With Hypertension.

ABSTRACT: Depression is a common comorbidity among patients with hypertension. Patients with hypertension and depression have worse health outcomes compared to those without depression. The combined effects of social support, physical comorbidity, and health literacy on depression among individuals with hypertension remain unclear. A survey was conducted between December 2017 and May 2018 to investigate the relationships among social support, physical comorbidity, health literacy, and depression in a population of patients with hypertension in rural areas of Sichuan province, China. Multiple linear regression was used to examine factors that influenced depression, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the relationships among the four study variables. The mean scores of 549 patients with hypertension were 37.17 ± 6.84 for social support, 14.62 ± 6.26 for health literacy, and 3.56 ± 3.05 for depression; furthermore, 34.2% of participants had physical comorbidity. Gender and per capita annual family income were significantly associated with depression. Physical comorbidity was directly positively related to depression while health literacy was directly negatively related to depression. Social support had an indirect negative association with depression by the mediating effects of health literacy and physical comorbidity. Adequate social support and health literacy, and less physical comorbidity could potentially contribute to reducing depression. The study highlights the importance of social support in maintaining mental health among patients with hypertension. Strategies that target the enhancement of social support and health literacy should be prioritized to relieve depression among patients with hypertension. More attention should be paid to women, low-income individuals, and patients with physical comorbidities.

SUBMITTER: Zhang B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7419472 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Physical Comorbidity and Health Literacy Mediate the Relationship Between Social Support and Depression Among Patients With Hypertension.

Zhang Baiyang B Zhang Wenjie W Sun Xiaxia X Ge Jingjing J Liu Danping D

Frontiers in public health 20200805

Depression is a common comorbidity among patients with hypertension. Patients with hypertension and depression have worse health outcomes compared to those without depression. The combined effects of social support, physical comorbidity, and health literacy on depression among individuals with hypertension remain unclear. A survey was conducted between December 2017 and May 2018 to investigate the relationships among social support, physical comorbidity, health literacy, and depression in a popu ...[more]

PMID: 32850572

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Project description:Background: The public health relevance of health literacy is highlighted by the fact that its higher levels can improve health outcomes and reduce health inequities. In order to design effective interventions for improving health literacy, the relationship between health literacy and other factors such as sociodemographic variables, subjective health and social support must be understood. Objective: Our aim was to test a socioecological model of the determinants of health literacy with a special focus on the effect of residence. Our study investigated geographical differences regarding the levels of health literacy and its determinants as this was not investigated before in European nationwide surveys. Methods: Data was collected by a polling company in a sample (n = 1,200) of the Hungarian adult population nationally representative by age, gender, and permanent residence in 2019 January. The questionnaire included items on sociodemographic data, subjective well-being, social support, and two health literacy scales. A recursive path model was used to outline the mediating effect of social support between sociodemographic variables and health literacy where both direct and indirect effects of the explanatory variables and multiple relationships among the variables were analyzed simultaneously. Multiple-group analysis was applied to the three pre-set categories of permanent residence (capital city, urban and rural). Results: There was no statistically significant difference by residence regarding levels of health literacy. Social support and educational attainment were the most important determinants of health literacy after adjusting for the effect of other sociodemographic variables. However, the magnitude of effect of social support and educational attainment is different between types of settlements, the strongest being in rural areas. Conclusion: Social support seems to mediate the effect of socioeconomic position on health literacy which could be taken into account when designing interventions to improve health literacy, especially in rural areas. Further studies would be needed especially in rural communities to see whether improvement of social support could be utilized in projects to increase the level of health literacy.

Project description:BackgroundIn recent years, people with mental health problems are increasingly using online social networks to receive social support. For example, in online depression communities, patients can share their experiences, exchange valuable information, and receive emotional support to help them cope with their disease. Therefore, it is critical to understand how patients with depression develop online social support networks to exchange informational and emotional support.ObjectiveOur aim in this study was to investigate which user attributes have significant effects on the formation of informational and emotional support networks in online depression communities and to further examine whether there is an association between the two social networks.MethodsWe used social network theory and constructed exponential random graph models to help understand the informational and emotional support networks in online depression communities. A total of 74,986 original posts were retrieved from 1077 members in an online depression community in China from April 2003 to September 2017 and the available data were extracted. An informational support network of 1077 participant nodes and 6557 arcs and an emotional support network of 1077 participant nodes and 6430 arcs were constructed to examine the endogenous (purely structural) effects and exogenous (actor-relation) effects on each support network separately, as well as the cross-network effects between the two networks.ResultsWe found significant effects of two important structural features, reciprocity and transitivity, on the formation of both the informational support network (r=3.6247, P<.001, and r=1.6232, P<.001, respectively) and the emotional support network (r=4.4111, P<.001, and r=0.0177, P<.001, respectively). The results also showed significant effects of some individual factors on the formation of the two networks. No significant effects of homophily were found for gender (r=0.0783, P=.20, and r=0.1122, P=.25, respectively) in the informational or emotional support networks. There was no tendency for users who had great influence (r=0.3253, P=.05) or wrote more posts (r=0.3896, P=.07) or newcomers (r=-0.0452, P=.66) to form informational support ties more easily. However, users who spent more time online (r=0.6680, P<.001) or provided more replies to other posts (r=0.5026, P<.001) were more likely to form informational support ties. Users who had a big influence (r=0.8325, P<.001), spent more time online (r=0.5839, P<.001), wrote more posts (r=2.4025, P<.001), or provided more replies to other posts (r=0.2259, P<.001) were more likely to form emotional support ties, and newcomers (r=-0.4224, P<.001) were less likely than old-timers to receive emotional support. In addition, we found that there was a significant entrainment effect (r=0.7834, P<.001) and a nonsignificant exchange effect (r=-0.2757, P=.32) between the two networks.ConclusionsThis study makes several important theoretical contributions to the research on online depression communities and has important practical implications for the managers of online depression communities and the users involved in these communities.

Project description:BACKGROUND:The psychological health (PH) of doctors affects the quality of medical service and is related to the safety of patients. The serious problems with the doctor-patient relationship in China can lead to long-term imbalances in doctor PH, and the poor PH status of doctors has raised scholars' concern. Current research mainly focuses on how factors such as social support and the impact of the residential environment correlate with individual PH. We continue this direction of research to see how the mechanism of social support impacts physician PH, also investigating the moderating effect of demographic indicators on physician PH. METHODS:Based on a survey of 399 physicians, a descriptive analysis of measured data was done using SPSS 19.0. Pearson correlation coefficient analysis was used to examine the correlations between PH and the social support rating scale (SSRS) and the demographic variables. KMO and Bartlett methods were used to examine the correlations between PH and SDS (a scale to measure depression) and between PH and SAS (a scale to measure anxiety). The method of factor analysis was used for multicollinearity tests, and multiple stepwise regression analysis was used to explore the demographic factors correlated with PH and SSRS. Two-way interactions in moderated multiple regression were used to test the moderating effect of education level and title on SSRS, SDS, and SAS. RESULTS:Our results indicate that the level of PH is influenced by the age, education, and title of a doctor. A physician's title is significantly and positively correlated with PH, but age and education are significantly negatively related. Age, education, and title also affect the level of SSRS in physicians. SSRS is positively correlated with age, education, and title, and SSRS positively influences PH. Education and title had significant effects on the moderating influences of SSRS, SDS, SAS, and PH. CONCLUSION:The factors directly affecting PH include SSRS, age, and title, while education was found to be an indirect influencing factor. To meet goals expressed in Chinese government policy related to these issues, we suggest strengthening the guidance of the media, introducing laws and regulations on doctor-patient risk management and control, reforming the review mechanism of hospital job titles, improving the education level of doctors, building a comprehensive evaluation system of "practice performance + doctor-patient satisfaction", and strengthening doctor-patient empathy. Through such measures, the level of PH in physicians will improve.

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Physical Comorbidity and Health Literacy Mediate the Relationship Between Social Support and Depression Among Patients With Hypertension.

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Physical Comorbidity and Health Literacy Mediate the Relationship Between Social Support and Depression Among Patients With Hypertension.

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