First-stroke recovery process: The role of family social support

Objective: To determine the role of family social support in three stroke r ehabilitation variables (functional status, depression, social status) duri ng a 6-month recovery period. Design: Assessment of first-stroke patients' functional status, depression, and social status before discharge and at 1, 3, and 6 months after stroke onset, in comparison with the amount of family social support received. The family social support scale-compliance, instrumental, and emotional suppor t-was employed in the first month. Setting: A university hospital and patients' residences. Patients: A consecutive sample of 43 first-stroke patients meeting the incl usion criteria. Main Outcome Measures: Changes of patients' rehabilitation variables over t he 6-month period were tested by use of repeated multivariate analysis of v ariance measures. Results: Observers of functional, depression, and social status changes wer e blind to patient grouping according to levels of family support. These th ree variables were significantly affected by higher levels of support (p = .001, p = .001, p = .020, respectively), but a significant interaction was found only with regard to functional status adjusted for initial stroke sev erity (p = .019). Patients with moderate/severe stroke and high levels of s ocial support attained a significantly better and progressively improving f unctional status than those with less support. Conclusions: High levels of family support-instrumental and emotional-are a ssociated with progressive improvement of functional status, mainly in seve rely impaired patients, while the psychosocial status is also affected.