Relationship between Aspects of the Social Support Provided by the Spouse and the Blood Pressure in Hypertension Patients Who Referred to Healthcare Centers in Qom, Iran

Hypertension is one of the most important risk factors for cardiovascular disease and stroke. Social support is one of the effective factors in the prevention and control of this disease. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the relationship between the aspects of social support received from the spouse and high blood pressure in patients who referred to healthcare centers in Qom, Iran. 

This cross-sectional study was performed on 280 patients with primary hypertension referred to healthcare centers in Qom. Data collection tools were demographic form, social support survey by Sherburne and Stuart, a checklist for checking and recording systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and a standard sphygmomanometer. The data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 20) using independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient, and multivariate linear regression tests.

According to the results, the social support received from the spouse was good in 82.9% of the patients, while 9.3% and 7.9% of the patients received moderate and low social support from their spouses, respectively. In addition, the results showed that the systolic (P=0.01) and diastolic blood pressures (P=0.003) had a significant relationship with the social support received from the spouse. Moreover, the findings revealed that occupation (P<0.001), gender (P<0.001), and income (P=0.019) had a significant correlation with the received social support (P<0.05).

The results of this study indicated that social support received from the spouse should be considered as an influential component on systolic and diastolic blood pressure in hypertension patients.