Wojszel Z B, Politynska B
Department of Geriatrics, Medical University of Bialystok, Fabryczna str. 27, 15-471 Bialystok, Poland.
Department of Geriatrics, Hospital of the Ministry of Interior in Bialystok, Bialystok, Poland.
Eur J Ageing. 2020 Oct 16;18(3):345-355. doi: 10.1007/s10433-020-00583-6. eCollection 2021 Sep.
The purpose of the study was to identify the different types of social support networks (SSNs) among community-dwelling people aged 75+ years in selected areas of Poland, and to evaluate any associations between the network type and demographic and health variables of the population studied. The two most prevalent SSN types identified using the Practitioner Assessment of Network Type were "family dependent" (35.8%) and "locally integrated" (32.2%). "Local self-contained" (6.4%), "wider community focused" (2.8%) and "private restricted" (5.6%) SSNs were observed less frequently. In 17.2% of cases, it was not possible to identify the type of network unequivocally. Older people with a locally integrated SSN, in contrast to the family dependent type, were generally younger, living alone, and less likely to be homebound, rate their health as poor, suffer from depression or dementia, and had lower levels of functional disability. Locally integrated SSNs are recognized in the literature as being the most robust in terms of facilitating well-being and providing sufficient support to help maintain the older person in the community. This may reflect the higher levels of independence of older people able to sustain these support networks, which are then transformed into family-dependent types as their health deteriorates, but confirmation of this would require prospective studies. An improved understanding of the prevalence of different types of social networks among older people in Poland would help to guide a systematic approach to recognizing unmet needs in this population and provide crucial information in the planning of formal services.
该研究的目的是确定波兰特定地区75岁及以上社区居民中不同类型的社会支持网络（SSN），并评估网络类型与所研究人群的人口统计学和健康变量之间的任何关联。使用网络类型从业者评估法确定的两种最常见的SSN类型是“家庭依赖型”（35.8%）和“本地融合型”（32.2%）。“本地独立型”（6.4%）、“更广泛社区关注型”（2.8%）和“私人受限型”（5.6%）的SSN观察到的频率较低。在17.2%的案例中，无法明确确定网络类型。与家庭依赖型相比，拥有本地融合型SSN的老年人通常更年轻、独居，居家的可能性更小，自我评估健康状况较差、患有抑郁症或痴呆症的可能性更小，功能残疾水平更低。在促进幸福感和提供足够支持以帮助老年人留在社区方面，本地融合型SSN在文献中被认为是最强大的。这可能反映了能够维持这些支持网络的老年人具有更高的独立性，随着他们健康状况的恶化，这些网络会转变为家庭依赖型，但对此的证实需要前瞻性研究。更好地了解波兰老年人中不同类型社会网络的流行情况，将有助于指导一种系统的方法来识别该人群中未满足的需求，并为正式服务的规划提供关键信息。
