| Summary: | Introduction. Social support is defined as perception of how other people
take care of us, how they understand our needs and give us support. Social
support has positive influence on health, adoption of healthy lifestyles and
recovery from illness. Objective. The aim of this paper is to detect the
level of social support across different socio-demographic groups and to
analyze relationship between social support, self-perceived health and mental
well-being. Methods. Data from the 2010 Household Survey (National Health
Survey) for the Republic of Srpska were used. A specially designed
questionnaire was used, developed on the basis of internationally recognized
and accepted instruments. Representative sample of 4,178 persons aged 18 and
older were interviewed. Results. The obtained results showed that the level
of social support was the lowest among the oldest population, persons with
the lowest level of education unemployed and unmarried. There was present
relationship between social support, self-perceived health and mental health
(distress/stress and vitality). It was detected that males mostly lived alone
relying on help from neighbors, while females mostly lived with other
household members and relied more on persons close to them. Conclusion.
Social support appears to be related to mental status and self-perceived
health. The results are intertwined with different age groups and they can
provide baseline for further analysis of causal relationship between social
support and mental and physical health among different age categories.
Detecting a link among social support, mental and physical health could
provide insight into the mechanisms of social support influencing health
status and behaviour.
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