Page 112 - GHES-2-3

Global Health Economics and
Sustainability
Social support and quality of life in Indian elderly

and physical health, psychosocial health, and overall the level of state government for the elderly population of
QOL. Neogi (2014) established a noteworthy correlation the study area. In conclusion, to enhance the general health
between social assistance networks and QOL. Costa et al. condition of older people, effective health promotion
(2012) highlighted the moderate predictive role of social measures are required.
support in health-related QOL (HRQOL), particularly in
the context of multiple sclerosis patients. Furthermore, Acknowledgments
Unsar et al. (2016) reported positive correlations between The authors are thankful to all the participants in the
the EQ-5D index score and total social support, as well survey.
as subgroups of family, friends, and significant others.
In summation, these collective findings reinforce the Funding
notion that robust social support networks, encompassing
relationships with family, friends, and significant others, None.
are integral to enhancing the overall QOL among elderly Conflict of interest
populations. Our present study is consistent with these
findings. The authors declare no competing interests.

Despite the relevance of the results derived from this Author contributions
study, certain limitations should be acknowledged. First,
the study exclusively involved elderly respondents residing Conceptualization: Mukesh Kumar Gupta, Dewaram A.
in the Siwan district of Bihar, India. Consequently, the Nagdeve
findings may not be fully generalizable to the broader Formal analysis: Mukesh Kumar Gupta
Indian elderly population. Second, due to the cross- Investigation: Mukesh Kumar Gupta
sectional design, causative factors underlying the observed Methodology: Mukesh Kumar Gupta
association between social support and QOL among the Writing – original draft: Mukesh Kumar Gupta
participants cannot be definitively established. As a result, Writing – review & editing: Dewaram A. Nagdeve, Jitendra
future research employing longitudinal designs should be Kumar
conducted to comprehensively explore these relationships.
Ethics approval and consent to participate
5. Conclusion The study was approved by the Student Research Ethics
The present study found a moderate and statistically Committee of the International Institute for Population
significant positive correlation between total QOL and Sciences, Mumbai, India (No./IIPS/SREC/597/2021).
total social support among the elderly in the Siwan district The informed consent was obtained from all individual
of Bihar, India. The correlational examination of these participants included in this study.
two variables yielded significant results, highlighting the
potential for improved QOL through increased efforts to Availability of data
enhance social support for elderly individuals. Furthermore, Data used in this work are available from the corresponding
the study identified positive correlations among various author on reasonable request.
domains of QOL and between these domains and the
overall QOL. Similarly, perceived social support from References
family, friends, and significant others exhibited positive Altay, B., Cavusoglu, F., & Cal, A. (2016). The factors affecting the
correlations with each other and with total perceived social perception of elderly patients towards health, quality of life,
support. More importantly, the participants reported a and health-related quality of life. TAF Preventive Medicine
high perception of social assistance from their families, Bulletin, 15(3):181.
reinforcing the pivotal role of the family as an immediate https://doi.org/10.5455/pmb.1-1438765038
and robust source of support. Families are often viewed
as the strongest sources of support in a person’s life, but Arpaci, F., Tokyurek, S., & Bilgili, N. (2015). Life quality of elderly
when those links break, and elderly parents are left on their living in the nursing home. Elderly Issues Research Journal,
8(1):1-11.
own, society should assist them in creating a social support
network. Family moral support and social reorganization Banovcinova, L., & Baskova, M. (2016). Role of the family,
of support networks at the participant level are suggested friends, and significant others in providing social support
to provide gerontological counseling. The QOL associated and enhancing quality of life in cancer patients. SHS Web of
with physical health was shown to be lower among the Conferences, 30:00020.
elderly. These findings suggest a call for policy attention at https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20163000020

Volume 2 Issue 3 (2024) 8 https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.2358