Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Longitudinal analysis of relationships between social support and general health in an Australian population cohort of young women

  • Published:
Quality of Life Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

The influence of social support on health and quality of life has been well documented. There is less evidence on whether health status affects social support, and little is known about longitudinal relationships between social support and health in early adulthood. This study investigates these associations using both concurrent and time-lagged measures at 5 time-points over 12 years during early adulthood.

Methods

A population-based cohort of 9,758 young women from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health was used. Women were aged 22–27 in 2000 and 35–39 in 2012. The General Health subscale of the SF-36 and the MOS Social Support Survey 6-item Scale were used, with scores standardised to a range of 0–100. Longitudinal tobit models were used, because both social support and general health data were left skewed, with marked ceiling effects. All models were adjusted for status of the outcome of interest at the immediately previous survey.

Results

With both concurrent and time-lagged measures, there was a statistically significant difference in mean general health scores across social support quintiles after adjusting for demographic and behavioural covariates: lower general health was associated with lower social support. In reverse, social support mean scores were also significantly different across general health quintiles in both concurrent and time-lagged fully adjusted models.

Conclusion

Social support is significantly associated with both current and subsequent general health in early adulthood. The significance of the reverse associations indicates that the two mutually influence each other. This study highlights the importance of social support as a health-related quality of life issue.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Barth, J., Schneider, S., & von Kanel, R. (2010). Lack of social support in the etiology and the prognosis of coronary heart disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychosomatic Medicine, 72, 229–238.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Gilbert, K. L., Quinn, S. C., Goodman, R. M., Butler, J., & Wallace, J. (2013). A meta-analysis of social capital and health: A case for needed research. Journal of Health Psychology, 18(11), 1385–1399.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Holt-Lunstad, J., Smith, T., & Layton, J. (2010). Social relationship and mortality risk: A meta-analytic review. PLoS Medicine, 7(7), e1000316. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316.g001.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Croezen, S., Picavet, S. J., Haveman-Nies, A., Verschuren, W. M. M., de Groot, L. C. P. M. G., & van’t Veer, P. (2012). Do positive or negative experiences of social support relate to current and future social support? Results from the Doetinchem Cohort Study. BMC Public Health, 12, 65–72.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Melchior, M., Berkman, L. F., Niedhammer, I., Chea, M., & Goldberg, M. (2003). Social relations and self-reported health: A prospective analysis of the French Gazel cohort. Social Science and Medicine, 56, 1817–1830.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Kershaw, K. N., Hankinson, A. L., Lui, K., Reis, J. P., Lewis, C. E., Loria, C. M., et al. (2014). Social relationships and longitudinal changes in body mass index and waist circumference: The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study. American Journal of Epidemiology, 179(5), 567–575.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Moak, Z., & Agrawal, A. (2009). The association between perceived interpersonal social support and physical and mental health: Results from the national epidemiological survey on alcohol and related conditions. Journal of Public Health, 32(2), 191–201.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Lui, L. (2011). Social connections, diabetes mellitus, and risk of mortality among white and African-American adults aged 70 and older: An eight-year follow-up study. Annals of Epidemiology, 21, 26–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Lui, L., & Newschaffer, C. (2011). Impact of social connections on risk of heart disease, cancer, and all-cause mortality among elderly Americans: Findings from the second longitudinal study of ageing (LSOA II). Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 53, 168–173.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Ferlander, S. (2007). The importance of different forms of social capital for health. Acta Sociologica, 50, 115–128.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Stansfeld, S. (2006). Social support and social cohesion. In M. Marmot & R. Wilkinson (Eds.), Social determinants of health (pp. 148–171). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Cornman, J. C., Goldman, N., Glei, D. A., Weinstein, M., & Chang, M.-G. (2003). Social ties and perceived support: Two dimensions of social relationships and health among the elderly in Taiwan. Journal of Aging and Health, 15(4), 616–644.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Ren, X. S., Skinner, K., Lee, A., & Kazis, L. (1999). Social support, social selection and self-assessed health status: Results from the veterans health study in the United States. Social Science and Medicine, 48, 1721–1734.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Lee, C., Dobson, A. J., Brown, W. J., Bryson, L., Byles, J., Warner-Smith, P., et al. (2005). Cohort profile: The Australian longitudinal study of women’s health. International Journal of Epidemiology, 34, 987–991.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Brown, W. J., Dobson, A. J., Bryson, L., & Byles, J. E. (1999). Women’s health Australia: On the progress of the main cohort studies. Journal of Women’s Health & Gender-Based Medicine, 8(5), 681–688.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Ware, J. E., Snow, K. K., Kosinski, M., & Gandek, B. (1993). SF-36 Health survey manual and interpretation guide. Boston, Massachusetts: The New England Medical Centre.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Sherbourne, C., & Stewart, A. (1991). The MOS social support survey. Social Science and Medicine, 32, 705–714.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Holden, L., Lee, C., Hockey, R., Ware, R. S., & Dobson, A. J., (2014). Validation of the MOS Social Support Survey 6-item (MOS-SSS-6) measure with two large population-based samples of Australian women. Quality of Life Research, Online First. doi:10.1007/s11136-014-0741-5.

  19. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2012). Australia’s health 2012. Canberra, Australia: AIHW.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Baheiraei, A., Mirghafourvand, M., Mohammadi, E., & Charandabi, S. M.-A. (2012). Social support for women of reproductive age and its predictors: A population-based study. BMC Women’s Health, 12, 30–36.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Cohen, S., & Lemay, E. (2007). Why would social networks be linked to affect and health practices? Health Psychology, 26(4), 410–417.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Grav, S., Hellzen, O., Romild, U., & Stordal, E. (2011). Association between social support and depression in the general population: The HUNT study, a cross-sectional survey. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 21, 111–120.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Ware, J., & Sherbourne, C. (1992). The MOS 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36). Medical Care, 30(6), 473–483.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Rumph, H., Meyer, J. C., Hapke, U., & John, U. (2001). Screening for mental health: Validity of the MHI-5 using DSM-IV Axis 1 psychiatric disorders as gold standard. Psychiatry Research, 105, 243–253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Holmes, W. (1998). A short, psychiatric, case-finding measure for HIV seropositive outpatients: Performance characteristics of the 5-item mental health subscale of the S-20 in a male, seropositive sample. Medical Care, 36(2), 237–243.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Silveira, E., Taft, C., Sundh, V., Waern, M., Palsson, S., & Steen, B. (2005). Performance of the SF-36 health survey in screening for depressive and anxiety disorder in an elderly female Swedish sample. Quality of Life Research, 14, 1263–1274.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Commonwealth of Australia. (2002). Australian alcohol guidelines: Health risks and benefits. Canberra, Australia: NHMRC.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Commonwealth of Australia. (2003). Clinical practice guidelines for the management of overweight and obesity in adults. Canberra, Australia: NHMRC.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Armstrong, T., Bauman, A., & Davies, J. (2000). Physical activity patterns of Australian adults: Results of the 1999 National Physical Activity Survey. Canberra, Australia: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Twisk, J., & Rijmen, F. (2009). Longitudinal tobit regression: A new approach to analyze outcome variables with floor or ceiling effects. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 62, 953–958.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Hopman, W. M., Towheed, T., Anastassiades, T., Tenenhouse, A., Poliquin, S., Berger, C., et al. (2000). Canadian normative data for the SF-36 health survey. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 163(3), 265–271.

    CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Hawthorne, G., Osborne, R. H., Taylor, A., & Sansoni, J. (2007). The SF-36 Version 2: Critical analysis of the population weights, scoring algorithms and population norms. Quality of Life Research, 16, 661–673.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Fuhrer, R., & Stansfeld, S. (2002). How gender affects patterns of social relations and their impact on health: A comparison of one or multiple sources of support from “close persons”. Social Science and Medicine, 54, 811–825.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Emmanuel, E., St John, W., & Sun, J. (2012). Relationship between social support and quality of life in childbearing women during the perinatal period. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing, 41(6), E62–E70.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Mao, Z.-H., & Zhao, X.-D. (2012). The effects of social connections on self-rated physical and mental health among internal migrant and local adolescent in Shanghai, China. BMC Public Health, 12, 97.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Phelan, J., Link, B., & Tehranifar, P. (2010). Social conditions as fundamental causes of health inequalities: Theory, evidence and policy implications. Journal of Health and Social Behaviour, 51, S28–S40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Vonneilich, N., Jockel, K.-H., Erbel, R., Klein, J., Dragnono, N., Siegrist, J., et al. (2012). The mediating effect of social relationships on the association between socioeconomic status and subjective health—Results from the Heinz Nixdorf Recall cohort study. BMC Public Health, 12, 285.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  38. Aanes, M., Mittelmark, M., & Hetland, J. (2010). Interpersonal stress and poor health: The mediating role of loneliness. European Psychologist, 15(1), 3–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Cohen, S. (2004). Social relationships and health. American Psychologist, 59(8), 676–684.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. Ozbay, F., Fitterling, H., Charney, D., & Southwick, S. (2008). Social support and resilience to stress across the life span: A neurobiologic framework. Current Psychiatry Reports, 10, 304–310.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  41. Yoon, E., Hacker, J., Hewitt, A., Abrams, M., & Cleary, S. (2012). Social connectedness, discrimination and social status as mediators of acculturation/enculturation and well-being. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 59(1), 86–96.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  42. Sintonen, S., & Pehkonen, A. (2014). Effect of social networks and well-being on acute care needs. Health and Social Care in the Community, 22(1), 87–95.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  43. Frick, U., Irving, H., & Rehm, J. (2012). Social relationships as a major determinant in the valuation of health states. Quality of Life Research, 21(2), 209–213.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  44. Turney, K. (2013). Perceived instrumental support and children’s health across the early life course. Social Science and Medicine, 95, 34-42.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

    Libby Holden & Christina Lee

  2. Centre for Longitudinal and Life Course Research, School of Population Health, University of Queensland, Room 322, Public Health Building, Herston Rd, Herston, Brisbane, QLD, 4006, Australia

    Libby Holden, Richard Hockey, Robert S. Ware & Annette J. Dobson

Authors
  1. Libby Holden
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Christina Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Richard Hockey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Robert S. Ware
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Annette J. Dobson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Libby Holden.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Holden, L., Lee, C., Hockey, R. et al. Longitudinal analysis of relationships between social support and general health in an Australian population cohort of young women. Qual Life Res 24, 485–492 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-014-0774-9

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-014-0774-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation