Abolfathi Momtaz Yadollah, Ibrahim Rahimah, Hamid Tengku A
Institute of Gerontology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia.
Psychogeriatrics. 2014 Mar;14(1):31-7. doi: 10.1111/psyg.12036. Epub 2013 Dec 2.
Social support that may contribute to the physical and mental health of older adults is widely studied. However, much of the existing research has focused on the impact of receiving support; the effects of giving support have largely been neglected. Using the biopsychosocial perspective, this study aimed to examine the independent impact of giving support to others on older adults' perceived health status.
Data for this study were obtained from a nationwide community-based cross-sectional survey entitled 'Determinants of Wellness among Older Malaysians: A Health Promotion Perspective', which was conducted in 2010. To assess the unique effects of giving support on perceived health status, above and beyond other possible known factors, a four-step hierarchical regression model using SPSS was used to test the hypothesis.
The findings from the analysis revealed that giving support to others was a significant positive predictor of older adults' perceived health status after receiving support, demographic variables and chronic medical conditions were considered. Further results showed that giving support to others had almost twice the effect on perceived health status (β = 0.11, P < 0.001) as receiving support (β = 0.06, P < 0.05).
The findings from this study underscore the need to develop programmes that encourage older adults' participation in productive activities such as caring for and helping others and volunteering.
有助于老年人身心健康的社会支持得到了广泛研究。然而，现有研究大多集中在接受支持的影响上；给予支持的影响在很大程度上被忽视了。本研究从生物心理社会视角出发，旨在探讨向他人提供支持对老年人健康状况认知的独立影响。
本研究数据来自2010年开展的一项名为“马来西亚老年人健康决定因素：健康促进视角”的全国性社区横断面调查。为了评估给予支持对健康状况认知的独特影响，在考虑其他可能已知因素之外，使用SPSS软件构建四步分层回归模型来检验假设。
分析结果显示，在考虑接受支持、人口统计学变量和慢性疾病状况后，向他人提供支持是老年人健康状况认知的显著正向预测因素。进一步结果表明，给予支持对健康状况认知的影响（β = 0.11，P < 0.001）几乎是接受支持（β = 0.06，P < 0.05）的两倍。
本研究结果强调了制定相关项目的必要性，这些项目应鼓励老年人参与诸如照顾和帮助他人以及志愿服务等有益活动。
