Social support receipt as a predictor of mortality: A cohort study in rural South Africa

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0003683
• Publication Date: 2024-09-09T17:20:33Z
• Authors: David Kapaon; Carlos Riumallo-Herl; Elyse Jennings; Shafika Abrahams-...; Keletso Makofane; Chodziwadziwa Whi...; Guy Harling
• Keywords: SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being; Research Article

The mechanisms connecting various types of social support to mortality have been well-studied in high-income countries. However, less is known about how these relationships function different socioeconomic contexts. We examined four domains support—emotional, physical, financial, and informational—impact within a sample older adults living rural resource-constrained setting. Using baseline survey longitudinal data from HAALSI, we assessed affects cohort 5059 individuals aged 40 years or Mpumalanga, South Africa. Social was captured as the self-reported frequency with which close contacts offered emotional, informational respondents, standardized across increase interpretability. used Cox proportional hazard models evaluate each type affected controlling for potential confounders, effect-modification by age sex. Each had small positive associations mortality, ranging ratio per standard deviation 1.04 [95% CI: 0.95,1.13] financial 1.09 0.99,1.18] support. Associations were often stronger females younger individuals. find be positively associated Possible explanations include that insufficient not strong driver risk this setting, does reach some necessary threshold buffer against mortality. Additionally, it possible measure did capture more relevant aspects support, our measures prior morbidity attracted before study began. highlight approaches hypotheses future research.