The Role of Perceived Social Support to Predict Depressive Disorder and Lifestyle Components in Patients with Myocardial Infarction

Social support is generally accepted to act as a protective factor against stressful situations. However, the extent of its effect on the depression and lifestyle of myocardial infarction (MI) patients is not known. Therefore, the present study aimed to examine the role of perceived social support in predicting major depressive disorder and lifestyle components in MI patients.

This quasi-experimental study was conducted in 2019 on 176 MI patients chosen through the purposive and convenience sampling methods from the Heart Center Hospital of Mazandaran, Iran. The required information was collected by three standard questionnaires, including the social support appraisals (SS-A) scale by Phillips, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), and Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP-II). Pearson correlation coefficient and canonical correlation coefficient were performed. The significance level in this study was considered as P-value<0.05.

The findings of the present study indicated that social support could predict depression by 48% and a significant negative correlation was found between social support and depression (r=-0.47, P=0.01). Moreover, social support had a significant impact on lifestyle components and was shown to predict health accountability (R2=0.691, β=0.289), spiritual growth (R2=0.672, β=0.256), stress management (R2=0.285, β=0.122), and interpersonal behavior (R2=0.586, β=0.175). In addition, it affected these factors significantly.

Providing opportunities for further social support for MI patients paves the way for enhancing health-promoting behaviors and reducing depression in this group of patients.