Effectiveness of Social Support in Coping with Stroke by Medically Ill Patient in Ibadan

Abstract

Stroke, also known as cerebrovascular accident (CVA), cerebrovascular insult (CVI) or brain attack, is when poor blood flow to the brain results in cell death, there is need for concurrent coping with stroke demand cognitive effort from the patient. Social support intervention is best started as early (at diagnosis) and demands continuous effort. Hence, the study examines the effectiveness of social support in coping with stroke by medically ill patient in Ibadan. The study is a descriptive survey research and a total of 50 stroke patients attending the government hospital of Adeoyo, Ibadan were purposively selected for the study. The study adopted the researchers, Multidimensional Scale of Social Support and the result yielded r=0.78 while coping with stroke was measured using a scale from Journal compilation (2008) Blackwell publishing Ltd. titled stroke self-efficacy questionnaire, the result yielded 0.81. The study developed five hypotheses and pearson product moment correlation was used to analyze of the findings. The result revealed that, there was a significant effect of family support on coping with stroke by the medically ill patients (r=0.352, N=50, p<0.05), there was a significant effect of financial support on coping with stroke by the medically ill patients (r=0.658, N=50, p<0.05), there was a significant relationship of emotional support on coping with stroke by the medically ill patients (r=0.402, N=50, p<0.05), there was a significant effect of companionship support on coping with stroke by the medically ill patients (r=0.654, N=50, p<0.05), the multiple regression analysis showed that, Family Support (β=-0.391, p<0.05) had significant effect followed by Financial Support (β=0.418, p<0.05), followed by Emotional Support (β=0.165, p<0.05) and Companionship Support (β=0.7878, p<0.05)Hence, the study revealed that, living with stroke requires joint effort of family support, financial support, emotional support and companionship support to help make the necessary changes to cope and adapt to stroke.