7/7/2023 0 Comments Si robertson military mos![]() ![]() In contrast, substantially less attention has been given in examining the association between the provision of social support to others and health outcomes. ![]() To date, the majority of research on social support and health outcomes has focused on receipt of social support, and its impact on mental and physical health outcomes 6, 10, 11. Although less robust, preliminary evidence suggests that poor social support is associated with negative outcomes, such as greater severity of depressive symptoms and functional impairment, and longer time to recovery in individuals with other mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and anxiety disorders 9. In the mental health literature, a recent systematic review of 34 studies found substantial evidence that poorer social support is prospectively linked to worse symptom severity, recovery outcomes and social functioning in individuals with depression 9. Further, accumulating research has shown positive associations between social support and measures of well-being, including cognitive functioning 8. ![]() Previous research identified the impact of lack of social support as a strong risk factor for all-cause mortality rates from various morbidities 5, 6, including cardiovascular disease 7, cancer, and infectious diseases 6. Social support is defined as the perception or experience of being loved and cared for by others 4. Since the seminal article by House and colleagues 2 published more than three decades ago, social support has been thought to improve health and lengthen lives 3. If we focus too much on ourselves, we’ll not be happy, whereas to concern ourselves with the well-being of others is the gateway to great joy. Results suggest that interventions to promote the provision of support may help mitigate risk for adverse mental health outcomes in veterans. Further, each standard deviation increase in provided support was independently associated with 22–32% reduced odds of internalizing psychiatric disorders and suicidal ideation, and veterans who scored higher on both provided and received support had 3.5- to 14-fold lower odds of these outcomes relative to those with high received support but low provided support. Veterans who scored higher on certain aspects of personality (i.e., agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extraversion) and received greater support were more likely to provide support. The majority (60–72%) of veterans reported providing support on a consistent basis. In this study, we evaluated associations between provided support and mental health in a nationally representative cohort of 4069 US veterans. While social support has been linked to better health, most research has focused on the receipt of social support. ![]()
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