Relationship between Hopelessness and Perceived Social Support from Family Patients Who has Choronic Illness

Purpose: This study was made as a descriptive in order to analyze the relations of individuals with chronic disease between the social support they preceive from their families and their desperation levels.

Method: The study was made on 102 patients with chronic disease and who accepted to join the study, in 2007, in Adnan Menderes University Research and Implementation Hospital. The facts were gathered by using the Patient Information Form, the Scale of Social Support perceived from family and the Beck Desperation Scale. The datum were analyzed in SPSS program/software with percentage, average, t-test, Kruskal-Wallis, Mann Whitney U and pearson correlations.

Results: It was stated that 50% of patients are over 60, 52% are elementary school graduates/students and incomes of 68,6% are equal to their expenses. Very few of the patients (9,8%) live alone and the rest live together with their families; 60,8% of them need the help of their relatives in daily life activities. The average score the patients got from the scale of social support perceived from family was observed to be 15.42 ± 4.0; whereas the average score of the Beck desperation scale was 7.90 ± 5.7. It was determined that the characteristics of the patients out of the training have no significant effect on their social support and desperation levels; there is a negative, medium and significant correlation (r=-507, two-way p<.005) between the social support the patients perceived from their families and desperation.

Conclusion: It was concluded that the more the patients get social support the less they suffer from desperation.