Perceived Social Support in Hemodialysis Patients

The treatment of renal failure through dialysis imposes considerable stress on patient. The need for long-term medical treatment of renal failure may place substantial demands and limitations on patient’s daily function and lifestyles. Perceived social support may facilitate coping with illness and its complications. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to determine perceived social support in hemodialysis patients. This was a descriptive-correlational and cross-sectional study in which 202 hemodialysis patients under treatment in teaching center of Iran University of Medical Sciences was recruited. The subjects were selected by census sampling method. The data were collected using "Personal Resource Questionnaire (PRQ 85-PART 2) and were analyzed by SPSS, version14. Findings confirm that overall patients had a high degree of perceived social support. Statisticall significant relationship was found between perceived social support and gender, material status, physical function, economic status, and educational level, but, there was no statistical significant correlation between perceived social support and other variable. Association between perceived social support and some demographic variables indicates the need for nurses to consider support resources of these patients. The study results demonstrated relationship between some demographic variable and perceived social support and a large amount of variances remained unexpected, so further research are needed about the subject.