Previous research suggests that social support has beneficial effects for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Yet, recent studies suggest that sociocultural differences have implications for whether or not the individuals use social support to cope with stressful events. Given the stressful nature of a chronic disabling disease, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the association of structural and functional facets of social support with quality of life (QoL) in Greek RA patients.
In a cross-sectional study, 127 Greek RA patients completed the Rheumatoid Arthritis Quality of Life questionnaire (RAQoL), the Patient Activity Scale-II (PAS-II), the Quality of Social Support Scale (QSSS), the Social Network Index (measuring social network size and number of social roles) and a visual analogue scale measuring reciprocity.
Patients' age, social network size and reciprocity had no significant correlation with QoL. Family income, education level and male gender were positively correlated with QoL. Number of social roles was positively correlated with QoL, but not significantly when disease activity and demographic factors were controlled. Quality of social support was positively correlated with QoL, and the correlation remained statistically significant after controlling for disease activity, demographic variables and number of social roles.
In Greek RA patients, quality of social support predicts quality of life above and beyond disease activity, demographic factors and social integration. Structural aspects of social support were not significant predictors of QoL, in line with previous research on cultural differences in how people utilise their social networks.