Perceived social support moderates the relationship between activities of daily living and depression after lower limb loss.
Derek R Anderson, Danielle S Roubinov, Aaron P Turner and 3 others
PMID 28406651WHAT IT FOUND
In 73 people after lower-limb amputation, those who found daily activities difficult had higher depression at 12 months when they also had low social support.
The study did not test whether increasing support reduces depression.
Key findings
01Perceived social support changed the strength of the link between recalled daily-activity difficulty and depressive symptoms at 12 months.
02Among participants with poor social support, greater recalled daily-activity difficulty was linked to more depressive symptoms at 12 months.
03Overall depressive symptoms at 6 weeks and 12 months did not differ significantly, but 36 of 73 participants reported increased symptoms over that period.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Daily-activity difficulty, social support, and mobility were recalled at 6 weeks rather than measured before surgery, so baseline values may be inaccurate. Only 73 participants had complete data, which limits confidence in subgroup patterns. The sample was mostly male, Caucasian, and veteran, so results may not apply to other groups. The study was observational and did not test whether increasing social support reduces depression. The social-support measure did not capture all aspects of support, such as aversive or person-specific support.
Declared interests
The article is tagged as supported by U.S. government research funding, non-P.H.S.; the supplied text does not include an author conflict-of-interest declaration.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that improving social support will reduce depression after lower-limb amputation. This study only observed an association between recalled daily-activity difficulty, perceived social support, and later depression; it did not test a social-support intervention.