Skip Navigation


Age and Ageing Advance Access originally published online on October 1, 2008
Age and Ageing 2008 37(6):666-672; doi:10.1093/ageing/afn205
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Supplementary Data
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
37/6/666    most recent
afn205v1
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Pachana, N. A.
Right arrow Articles by Dobson, A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Pachana, N. A.
Right arrow Articles by Dobson, A.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Geriatrics Society. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Responsiveness of the Duke Social Support sub-scales in older women

Nancy A. Pachana1, Nadine Smith2, Melanie Watson2, Deirdre McLaughlin2 and Annette Dobson2

1 School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane Qld, 4072, Australia
2 School of Population Health, University of Queensland, Herston Qld, 4006, Australia

Address correspondence to: Nancy A Pachana, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane Qld, 4072, Australia. Tel: (+61) 7 3365 6832; Fax: (+61) 7 3365 4466. Email: n.pachana{at}psy.uq.edu.au

Objective: an abbreviated form of the Duke Social Support Index (DSSI) as used in a large longitudinal study of older Australian women was examined with respect to factors that might be expected to affect social support for older women over time.

Methods: in this large cohort study two sub-scales of the DSSI, one describing the size and structure of the social network (four items) and the other perceiving satisfaction with social support (six items), were analysed in relation to outcome and exploratory variables.

Results: over a 3-year period, the network score increased among women whose life circumstances meant that they were likely to receive more support (e.g. recent widowhood). Likewise, those women at risk of becoming more socially isolated (e.g. those with sensory loss) became less satisfied with their social support. Changes in both measures were tempered by women's mental health and optimism.

Conclusions: although the sub-scales of the DSSI may not fully reflect the complexity of social support paradigms, they are responsive to changes in the lives of older women and can be useful in community-based epidemiological studies.

Keywords: social support, women's health, longitudinal studies, Duke Social Support Index, elderly

Received 25 July 2007; accepted in revised form 20 March 2008.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.