Social support as a regulator of self-care attitude in persons with myocardial infarction

The article presents the results of research on the relationship between social support and self-care of people with myocardial infarction. 127 patients treated in a rehabilitation centre participated in the study. The Inventory of Socially Supportive Behaviours (ISSB) and the Self-care Questionnaire (KTS) developed by the author, were used. The findings suggest that persons receiving little support are characterised by lower level of self-care than people with medium and high level of support. No such difference was noted between people with medium and high support level. This suggests that social support is of considerable importance for the changes in the level of self-care only in the case of people previously receiving little support. The research also indicates that informational support is related to higher level of self-care whereas instrumental support is related to lower level of self-care. Emotional support was significant only for the care for social functioning.