Adaptation and validation of the Instrumental Expressive Social Support Scale in Portuguese older individuals.
Lígia Lima, Célia Santos, Celeste Bastos and 3 others
PMID 30517583WHAT IT FOUND
A 16-item Portuguese questionnaire can help nurses identify older adults with low perceived social support.
In this study, higher support scores were linked to higher medication adherence and fewer negative feelings.
Key findings
01The Portuguese IESS version analysed had 16 items and grouped into familiar and socio-affective support, sense of control, and financial support.
02In the validation sample, internal consistency coefficients were 0.911, 0.805, 0.866, and 0.918 for the three factors and total score.
03Higher social support scores were associated with higher medication adherence and lower negative affect.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The older adults were recruited by convenience, not randomly, so they may not represent all older people. The study is cross-sectional, so it can show associations between social support, medication adherence, and affect, but not that one causes another. Missing answers were replaced with mean scores when a case had five or fewer missing values, which can distort responses. The sample was community-dwelling, mostly non-active, and mostly primary-school educated, so it may not represent other older adults. The paper validates a questionnaire; it does not test whether using the scale changes care or patient outcomes.
Declared interests
The study was supported by Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional, Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (COMPETE2020), POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007746, and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal. The supplied text lists no author conflict declarations.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that improving social support improves medication adherence or mood. The study validated a questionnaire and reported correlations in a cross-sectional sample; it did not test an intervention.