HEART AND KIDNEY PATIENTS

The prevalence of chronic diseases is exceptionally high (37.9%) among theadult population of Pakistan. Social support could play a significant role in shaping the copingstrategies and determining the subjective wellbeing of chronically ill patients. Objectives:This research documents the correlation patterns of social support with coping strategiesand subjective well-being among Heart and Kidney Patients. Methods: The primary data wascollected from four major hospitals in Lahore by using purposive sampling method. For thecollection of quantitative data, a hospital-based, cross-sectional survey was conducted with275 admitted patients (131-heart and 144-kidney) 184 male and 91 female (20 to 110 yearsof age) by using a structured interview schedule. Pearson Product-moment Correlation andMultiple Regression Analysis were performed on the data set. Results: Strongest correlationwas found between emotional and informational social support (r=.853). Instrumental socialsupport also indicates strong relationship with the emotional social support (r=.838). Therewas a moderate positive correlation (r=.339) between behavioral coping, emotional socialsupport and informational social support (r=.424). Data show a negative relationship betweenphysical coping and subjective well-being (r=.381). Results of the study suggest that emotional(β=.230) and informational (β=.217) social support affect the patients’ ability to actively engagein behavioral and physical coping for the subjective well-being; however, physical copingindicated negative effects (β=-.225) on the subjective feelings of well-being. Conclusions: Astrong correlations among four types of social support exists and behavioral coping has thestrongest impact on the subjective well-being (β=.629).