SANTOS, Priscilla Andrewns dos; RUSCHEL, Patricia Pereira    PFEIFER, Paula Moraes. Social Support and Coping in Patients with Heart Failure. []. , 24, 2, pp.151-162. ISSN 1516-0858.

This study aims to identify the type of social support and the predominant coping mechanism in 62 ambulatory patients with heart failure and possible correlations. It was applied a semi structured interview for sociodemographic and health data, Ways of Coping Scale, Social Support Scale and a field journal. High medians were found regarding social support, being material support the most frequent one. The preponderant coping mechanism was the one based on the stressor - an adaptive strategy to the health problem in question. A direct correlation was found between problem-focused coping and the perception of the three different social support factors. Emotion-focused coping was inversely related to affective social support/positive social interaction and emotional/informative support. It was observed that the perception of the three social support factors evaluated was correlated with search for social support. Religious-focused coping did not correlate with any type of support. Coping and social support correlations suggest that patients with lower perception of emotional and affective support tend to use less adaptive coping mechanisms. It reinforces the relevance of social support in treatment compliance and coping with health restrictions.

: heart failure; social support; coping.

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