The association between social support and mental health in the elderly with hypertension

Objective: To explore the association between family/friend social support and mental health (cognitive and emotional well-being) in the elderly with hypertension. Methods: A total of 173 elderly patients with hypertension aged 60 to 81 years old (76 males and 97 females) were selected from community hospitals. The social support was measured with a self-prepared questionnaire. The cognitive well-being was measured with the immediate and delayed word recall, number span, verbal fluency, and backward counting tasks, while the emotional well-being measured with a 12-item affective wordlist. Results: The main results of univariate analysis showed that family support was associated with more positive affect and less negative affect (NA) (ps < 0.05); friend social support was associated with better cognitive well-being and more positive affect (PA). The result of multiple linear regression analysis showed that family support could positively predict PA and negatively predict NA (β1 = 0.39, p1 = 0.003; β2 = -0.25, p2 = 0.004); while friend support positively predict cognitive well-being (β = 0.39, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Family and friend support play different roles on the two facets of mental health of the elderly with hypertension. Family support had greater contribution on emotional well-being, while friend support contributed more to cognitive well-being.