Health and Social Support of Older Adults in the Community

Structured interviews were conducted with forty-eight older clients discharged from a public health nursing service in order to: (1) describe their social support network and (2) identify specific components of social support related to physical, social and emotional health. The sample was comprised primarily of older widows living alone to whom family and relatives contributed the largest amount of support. Correlation analyses revealed that: (1) age, emotional support given by older persons to their supporters and aid given and received by older persons were related to physical functioning; (2) emotional, decisional and aid support given by older persons to their supports (total reciprocity) and femaleness were related to emotional functioning and; (3) emotional and aid support received by older persons and reciprocity were related to social functioning.