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. 2019 Jul 17;9(7):e026667.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-026667.

Social support and depression among community dwelling older adults in Asia: a systematic review

Tengku Amatullah Madeehah Tengku Mohd  1   2   3 , Raudah Mohd Yunus  3   4 , Farizah Hairi  2   3 , Noran N Hairi  2   3 , Wan Yuen Choo  2   3
Affiliations

Social support and depression among community dwelling older adults in Asia: a systematic review

Tengku Amatullah Madeehah Tengku Mohd et al. BMJ Open. .

Abstract

Objectives: This review aims to: (1) explore the social support measures in studies examining the association between social support and depression among community-dwelling older adults in Asia and (2) the evidence of association.

Design: A systematic review was conducted using electronic databases of CINAHL, PubMed, PsychINFO, Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Collection, SocINDEX and Web of Science for articles published until the 11th of January 2018.

Eligibility criteria: All observational studies investigating the association between social support and depression among community-dwelling older adults in Asia were included.

Participants: Older adults aged 60 years and more who are living in the community.

Exposure measures: Social support.

Outcome measures: Depression.

Results: We retrieved16 356 records and screened 66 full-text articles. Twenty-four observational studies were included in the review. They consisted of five cohort studies and 19 cross-sectional studies. Social support was found to be measured by multiple components, most commonly through a combination of structural and functional constructs. Perceived social support is more commonly measured compared with received social support. Good overall social support, having a spouse or partner, living with family, having a large social network, having more contact with family and friends, having emotional and instrumental support, good support from family and satisfaction with social support are associated with less depressive symptoms among community-dwelling older adults in Asia.

Conclusions: There were 20 different social support measures and we applied a framework to allow for better comparability. Our findings emphasised the association between good social support and decrease depression among older adults. Compared with western populations, family support has a greater influence on depression among community-dwelling older adults in Asia. This indicates that the family institution needs to be incorporated into designed programmes and interventions when addressing depression in the Asian context. TRIAL : registration number : CRD42017074897.

Keywords: Asia; depression; older adults; social support; systematic review.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: TAMTM reports financial and non-financial support from the University of Malaya, Islamic Science University of Malaysia and the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, outside the submitted work. RMY reports financial and non-financial support from the University of Malaya, Universiti Teknologi MARA and the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, outside the submitted work. FH, NNH and WYC report grants and non-financial support from University of Malaya and the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, outside the submitted work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Conceptual framework of social support adapted from Cobbs (1976), Berkman et al and Schwarzbach et al.
Figure 2
Figure 2
PRISMA flowchart of the review. PRISMA, Preferred Reporting Systems for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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