Social Support Among Heart Disease Patients: A Critical Review of Literature

The aim of this paper was to critically review literature regarding the social support among heart disease patients. Social support has been prospectively associated with prognosis among heart disease patients. Psychosocial factors such as depression and low social support are established risk factors for poor prognosis in patients with heart disease. Patients living with heart disease who receive proper social support have a better prognosis than those who do not have this support. This is a qualitative meta synthesis study. Thus, literature on social support among heart disease patients were searched and reviewed. Information about the available social support, beneficial supportive actions, social support factors contributing to heart disease, and social support challenges faced by heart disease patients were identified and discussed. The paper concludes that information regarding social support available to heart disease patients, supportive actions beneficial to heart disease patients, social support factors contributing to heart disease and social support challenges faced by heart disease patients is paramount for the development of a clinical assessment tool and support model for heart disease patients; and recommends that identified information should be used to develop a clinical assessment tool to obtain baseline social support information from every heart disease patient, to inform effective social support interventions.