Social support, life stress, and subsequent medical care utilization.

Four-hundred thirty-seven adults 40 years old or older were monitored for medical care utilization in a health maintenance organization over a 5-year period. Rates of utilization were related, in specific ways, to initially obtained indicators of life stress and social support and to interactions between life stress, social support, and age. Use of both standard and step-down hierarchical multiple-regression procedures permitted a distinction between immediate and delayed effects. Implications are drawn regarding the buffering hypothesis for the mitigating effects of social support on the likelihood of health breakdown.