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Global Health Econ Sustain Social support and health in musculoskeletal disorders

Table 15. Differences between individuals of different educational backgrounds in pain self‑efficacy, perceived social support,
and health locus of control
Education Levene’s test ANOVA
Primary High Lyceum Post‑ Higher
education school education secondary education
education education
Μ SD Μ SD Μ SD Μ SD Μ SD F p F df1, p
(4, 101) df2
Pain self-efficacy 29.00 13.54 31.80 14.62 37.00 11.63 35.22 13.31 33.17 13.16 0.215 0.930 1.297 4, 101 0.276
Support from the significant other 5.13 1.25 4.56 1.27 5.25 0.97 5.17 1.19 5.19 1.08 0.290 0.884 1.287 4, 101 0.280
Support from family 5.20 1.16 4.87 1.15 5.24 1.27 4.78 1.84 5.37 1.01 1.106 0.358 0.639 4, 101 0.636
Support from friends 3.23 1.61 3.71 1.47 3.76 1.14 4.03 1.63 3.96 1.51 1.274 0.285 1.090 4, 101 0.366
Overall social support 4.52 0.97 4.38 1.08 4.75 0.77 4.66 1.14 4.84 0.94 0.806 0.524 0.665 4, 101 0.618
Health locus of control (internal) 23.69 4.67 24.24 4.94 24.94 4.84 24.44 6.64 25.25 4.33 0.836 0.505 0.354 4, 101 0.841
Health locus of control (chance) 21.29 5.50 19.80 4.16 20.11 4.59 18.67 4.33 18.67 6.14 1.246 0.296 1.009 4, 101 0.406
Health locus of control (doctors) 13.19 3.12 14.68 2.34 14.33 2.14 14.56 2.46 13.25 3.25 1.550 0.194 1.585 4, 101 0.184
Health locus of control (others) 12.69 3.54 11.36 3.67 10.00 3.97 10.22 4.44 10.92 3.03 0.470 0.757 2.206 4, 101 0.074

(sociodemographic and clinical) influence them. The private and public insurance as they showed a higher
sample employed in this study includes people over 65 years level of perceived support from an important person
old with the majority being women (74 people), while the compared to people with public insurance. Furthermore,
average age was 76 years. These findings were consistent the elderly individuals who had never engaged in manual
with prior research studies on this particular issue. labor appeared to receive more overall social support

Our results showed that age is one of the factors that than those engaged in heavy manual labor. The effect of
influence pain self-efficacy and has a negative effect, since socioeconomic factors on the social support received by
the older participants presented lower levels of self-efficacy. the individuals is significant.
This means that over the years, these participants were In addition, individuals who did not have a helper
unable to manage their pain as effectively as they were in showed a higher health locus of control on others compared
the past, indicating that advanced age is a factor that may to those who did have a helper, while the divorced, as
burden their lives. This finding concurred with the research opposed to the married and bereaved, showed a lower level
results on pain self-efficacy by Terzaki et al. (2023). of health locus of control on others, indicating that the
Subsequently, we found that people who did not have a absence of a partner leads to the belief that they did not
helper had a higher level of pain self-efficacy as compared experience control others did otherwise. Furthermore, it
to people who had a helper; this has also been confirmed should be noted that elderly women showed a higher level
previously (Warner et al., 2011). The findings of this study of health locus of control on the internal compared with
are reflective of the need and the desire of these patients in their male counterparts, consistent with findings by Zhang
gaining control of their own lives as they are responsible & Jang (2017), showing that women are more inclined to
towards themselves. These findings also shed light on the control their health issues, as compared with men.
issue of social support from family or friends and their We acknowledge several limitations of the present study.
importance in the context of chronic disease management. Due to time constraint, a relatively small sample of only
The financial condition also seemed to play a role in 106 people was recruited in this study. Furthermore, the
this regard, as evidenced by the better pain management study participants were not randomly sampled but selected
by older people with higher incomes, which has also out of convenience. Consequently, the findings, although
been observed in other studies (Grol-Prokopczyk, 2017). consistent with other literature and research results, are
The study also showed that people who had private not feasible for generalization in other populations.
insurance or both private and public insurance coverages 5. Conclusion
had a higher level of pain self-efficacy than those having
public insurance coverage only. Similar observations were Musculoskeletal disorders are an inevitable set of pathological
made in the present research for the individuals who had conditions strongly associated with aging, and they can

Volume 1 Issue 2 (2023) 8 https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.1412