Impacts of Poor Social Support on General Health Status in Community-Dwelling Korean Elderly: The Results from the Korean Longitudinal Study on Health and Aging

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the influence of social support on health, quality of life (QOL), and the risk of depression in elderly Korean people. METHODS: This study was conducted as a part of the Korean Longitudinal Study on Health and Aging (KLoSHA). A total of 787 nondemented community-dwelling elderly aged 65 years or older were recruited and underwent clinical evaluations for dementia and psychiatric disorders conformed to Korean version of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease Clinical Assessment Battery (CERAD-K) and the Korean version of the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), respectively. Social support was assessed using the Medical Outcome Study Social Support Survey (MOS-SSS). Poor social support (PSS) was defined as having a MOS-SSS score below the 25(th) percentile of the entire sample. General health status was comprehensively evaluated using the modified Cumulative Illness Rating Scale (CIRS), the Korean version of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-K), Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE-KC), Korean Activities of Daily Living (KADL), and Korean Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (KIADL). Health-related QOL was evaluated using the Short Form 36 (SF-36). RESULTS: Low educational attainment and living alone were associated with PSS. Geriatric depression was more prevalent in the PSS group (OR=3.05, 95% CI=1.77-5.27) than in the normal social support (NSS) group. Among the various forms of social support, positive social interaction was significantly associated with risk of geriatric depression (OR=2.25, 95% CI=1.07-4.73). Although health-related QOL was lower in the PSS group than in the NSS group, the ADL and IADL scores of the subjects in the PSS group were better than those of the subjects in the NSS group. In the subjects with geriatric depression, PSS was associated with more severe depression, higher medical morbidity, and poor QOL. CONCLUSION: PSS had a negative influence on the general health status and QOL among community-dwelling elderly and was an independent risk factor of geriatric depression.