The relationship between social support and health status of elderly people: Does social support slow down physical and functional deterioration?

Abstract

Because the elderly population is increasing, both informal and formal support systems face an increasingly difficult task of providing eldercare. To foster more effective partnerships between informal and formal helping systems in the face of the increasing demand for eldercare, this article analyzes a sample of 695 elderly men and women to determine the elasticity of their informal social support systems in response to their declining health and the effects of such support on their health outcomes. The estimation of a covariance structure model using LISREL 7 indicates that the extent of informal support is more likely to be bound by the size of the social support network than by the demand for care associated with declining health. However, social support for elderly people tends to slow down further deterioration of their health, confirming the beneficial effect of social support on elderly people's health outcomes. Policy and practice implications are discussed.