Social support and the well-being of persons with spinal cord injury living in the community

Randomly selected 100 men and 40 women from a population sampling frame of 661 persons with spinal cord injury. They completed a social support questionnaire, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, the Life Satisfaction Index A, and a single-item self-assessment of health status. A physician assessed the presence or absence of urinary tract infection from laboratory findings and determined the absence, presence, and severity of pressure ulcers from physical examination. Amount of social support was positively related to life satisfaction and physical well-being. Satisfaction with one's support network was associated negatively with depressive symptomatology and positively with life satisfaction. The magnitude of the relationships tended to be small. Implications for future methodological research and rehabilitation interventions are discussed.