Social networks and quality of life: The national health interview survey

Abstract

Abundant studies document the importance of social support on quality of life (QOL). These studies mainly focus on individualistic and social capital perspectives. Studies showing how structural, dyadic and network level perspectives actually influence QOL remain lacking. In this study, we develop a theoretical model based on social network theories and the QOL model to understand how social support would influence QOL in the context of cancer patients. Using the U.S. National Health Interview Survey 2010, we (i) demonstrate how relational data is extracted for (ii) investigate the association between egocentric network properties (structure, position and relations) and overall QOL. Results show that there are significant differences in the network properties (density, degree, tie strength, efficiency and constraint) of those experiencing high and low QOL. These findings are critical to influencing interventions and policy development for enhanced QOL in cancer care.