The Role of Social Support on Subjective Well-Being, Depression and Quality of Life of Cancer Patients

Abstract

The objective of research study was to explore the role of social support on subjective well-being, depression and quality of life of cancer patients. Using purposive sampling, PGI Social Support Questionnaire (Nehra et al., 1996), PGI General Well-Being Scale (Verma & Verma, 1989), Asha-Deep Depression Scale (Kumar, 2000) and Hindi Version of WHOQOL- BREF (WHOQOL Group1998) were administered to the 100 male and 100 female cancer patients. Another group of 100 male and 100 female controls of the same age range and education was included in the sample who did not had any history of psychiatric, psychosomatic and intrinsic disorders. The data were analyzed using mean, SDs and stepwise multiple regression analyses. The results revealed that cancer patients scored low on social support questionnaire, exhibit low level of subjective well-being, experience high level of depressive symptoms and impaired quality of life towards their life as compared to the control group due to traumatic and meaningless life. The inter-correlation analysis described that social support of cancer patients found to be correlated positively subjective well-being and quality of life and negatively with depression respectively. Findings of this research are highly beneficial for clinical, nursing and psychosocial care and support of cancer patients.