PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING AND PERCEIVED FAMILIAL SOCIAL SUPPORT FOR PATIENTS WITH HEPATITIS C: A CHALLENGE FOR HEALTH PRACTITIONERS

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship of familial social support with psychological wellbeing in patients with hepatitis C. The study also provide an insight about the role of some demographic variables in relation to the study variables. Psychological Well-being Scale and Familial Social Support Scale were used on a sample of 103 (men = 47; women = 56) in-and-out patients with hepatitis C. All participants were taken from different clinics and hospitals of three cities of Pakistan. The findings revealed satisfactory reliability i.e., .95 and .88 for both the measures. The results showed a highly significant positive relationship (r = .60, p < 0.01) between familial social support and psychological well-being. The findings further indicated that educated patients have significantly high sense of psychological well-being as compared to uneducated patients. Patients belonging to relatively lower socioeconomic status have low sense of psychological well-being than patients from high socioeconomic status. Patients who diagnosed at initial stage have high level of familial social support and psychological well-being. Results showed that patients with hepatitis C belonging to nuclear family system have high level of familial social support than the patients belonged from joint family system. It was also found that patients who belong to small family perceived significantly more familial social support as compared to those who belongs to large family.