Depression, Social Support, and Quality of Life in Older Adults With Osteoarthritis

Abstract

Social support appeared to play an important role in moderating the effects of pain, functional limitation, and depression on these subjects' quality of life. Nurses who work with older adults are in a unique position to help them adjust to living with osteoarthritis by providing them the support needed to help them manage their disease.

Old people in pain: A comparative study

“…In contrast, other studies have shown that social network/support may be weaker, especially among the oldest old, with increasing age 31,32 and hence the potential moderating influence on pain from the social network/support is not there anymore. 30,33,34 People in the social network can not only be supportive and help to manage daily life, but could also be helpful in identifying problems (e.g., pain) and in obtaining help. The oldest old (85ϩ) in pain, in this study, were more often found to live in sheltered housing.…”

A multidisciplinary assessment and intervention for patients awaiting total hip replacement to improve their quality of life

“…Pain was shown, through gait compensation studies of patients with osteoarthritis, to be correlated to decreased walking speeds, step rates and single limb stance, whilst also causing the individual to alter their gait pattern (Hurwitz et al, 1997). It is therefore an imperative that pain is managed appropriately for this patient group (Bliven and Kippes, 1999).…”

No Need to Count Sheep: Investigating an Online Insomnia Intervention among Older Adults

“…Research investigating the psychometric properties of the QOLS indicates good test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and convergent and divergent validity (Burckhardt, Clark, & Bennett, 1993;Blixen & Kippes, 1999).…”