Department of Nursing, SALBIS Research Group, Nursing Research Group IDIVAL, University of Cantabria, 39008 Santander, Spain.
Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, GRAFO, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Barcelona, Spain.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018 Nov 29;15(12):2695. doi: 10.3390/ijerph15122695.
In the context of chronic illness, the individual's social and relational environment plays a critical role as it can provide the informal support and care over time, beyond healthcare and social welfare institutions. Social Network Analysis represents an appropriate theoretical and methodological approach to study and understand social support since it provides measures of personal network structure, composition and functional content. The aim of this mixed method study is to present the usefulness of Personal Network Analysis to explore social support in the context of chronic pain. Personal and support network data of 30 people with chronic pain (20 alters for each ego, 600 relationships in total) were collected, obtaining measures of personal network structure and composition as well as information about social support characteristics. Also, semi-structured interviews with participants were conducted to identify the context of their experience of pain, their limitations as regards leading an autonomous life, their social support needs and other aspects concerning the effect of pain on their social and relational lives. This approach shows the importance of non-kin social support providers and the significant role of non-providers in the personal networks of people suffering chronic pain.
在慢性病背景下，个体的社会和关系环境起着至关重要的作用，因为它可以在医疗保健和社会福利机构之外，随着时间的推移提供非正式的支持和关怀。社会网络分析是研究和理解社会支持的一种合适的理论和方法学方法，因为它提供了个人网络结构、组成和功能内容的衡量标准。本混合方法研究的目的是展示个人网络分析在慢性疼痛背景下探索社会支持的有用性。收集了 30 名慢性疼痛患者的个人和支持网络数据（每个自我 20 个改变者，总共 600 个关系），获得了个人网络结构和组成的衡量标准，以及关于社会支持特征的信息。此外，还对参与者进行了半结构化访谈，以确定他们疼痛体验的背景、他们在自主生活方面的限制、他们的社会支持需求以及疼痛对他们社会和人际关系生活影响的其他方面。这种方法表明了非亲属社会支持提供者的重要性，以及非提供者在慢性疼痛患者个人网络中的重要作用。
