Loneliness is an important risk factor for poor health outcomes among adults, especially among those with severe mental illnesses (SMIs). Existing research has shown that adults with SMIs often lack health literacy, which contributes to more restricted social networks and low levels of social support. The objective of this cross-sectional study was to examine the influence of health literacy and social support on the loneliness of patients with SMI in rural Southwest China. We recruited 300 patients with SMI in rural Southwest China between December, 2017 to May, 2018 via a multi-stage stratified random sampling approach. We used structural equation modeling (SEM) test the hypothesized relationships among the variables of the 270 patients who completed the survey. Results of the SEM showed that health literacy was both directly and indirectly associated with loneliness, with social support playing a mediating role. These findings suggest psychoeducation for SMI patients, and their informal caregivers, may offer beneficial effects toward reducing loneliness in this vulnerable population. Further, social support is another potential target for intervention development for improving patient outcomes.
Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of workplace violence against health care workers, to explore the combined association of work stress, psychological job demands, and social approval with workplace violence and their respective mechanisms among health care workers.Methods: Using data from the Chinese Sixth National Health Service Survey (NHSS) in 2018 conducted among 1,371 health care workers in Sichuan province of China. A self-administered structured questionnaire was used to collect data on health care workers' socio-demographic and work-related characteristics, work stress, psychological job demands, social approval, and workplace violence. We used structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the hypothesized relationship among the variables.Results: The results showed that a total of 77.0% health care workers were exposed to workplace violence. Work stress was directly related to workplace violence (β = 2.167, 95%CI: 1.707, 2.627), while psychological job demands and social approval had indirect associations with workplace violence via work stress [β = 0.427, 95%CI: 0.297, 0.557; β = −0.787, 95%CI: (−0.941)–(−0.633)]. Both psychological job demands (β = 0.197, 95%CI: 0.139, 0.255) and social approval [β = −0.346, 95%CI: (−0.399)–(−0.294)] had direct associations with work stress, while social approval had direct association with psychological job demands [β = −0.085, 95%CI: (−0.136)–(−0.034)]. Psychological job demands mediated the relationship between social approval and work stress.Conclusion: Overall, decreasing workplace violence among health care workers requires to promote interventions to reduce work stress and psychological job demands by improving social approval.
Objective: Depression is a common and overwhelming psychiatric disorder among family caregivers of persons with severe mental illness (SMI). The interrelationships among social support, loneliness, and depression, especially among this relatively vulnerable group, are poorly understood. The aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that the social support contributes to the alleviation of depression, through its effect on reducing loneliness.Methods: A survey of 256 rural family caregivers of persons with SMI was conducted between December 2017 and May 2018 in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, China. Social support, loneliness and depression were measured. A series of multiple linear regression models and bootstrapping procedure were performed to examine the mediating effects of loneliness on the association between social support as well as its components and depression.Results: The proportion of family caregivers of persons with SMI who reported significant depressive symptoms was 53.5%. Loneliness fully mediated the negative association between social support and depression. As to three components of social support, subjective support and objective support only had indirect associations with depression mediated by loneliness, while support utilization had both direct and indirect relationships with depression.Conclusion: The current study highlighted that social support and its three components may acted as protective factors by decreasing the feelings of loneliness, which created a beneficial effect on depression among family caregivers of persons with SMI.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.