Impact of social support from family and friends read more at here www.spinonews.com/index.php/item/792-impact-of-social-support-from-family-and-friends

When someone does not have the social support of family and friends, take longer to return home to the community. We believe that support from loved ones may lead to better recovery and better quality of life.

A recent study from University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston showed that patients with strong social support from family and friends spend less time in an inpatient rehabilitation facility.

Zakkoyya Lewis, a doctoral student in UTMB's department of rehabilitation sciences, said, the study is one of the first to look at how level of social support impacts how long patients need to spend in a rehab facility.

Following certain injuries or surgeries, patients are often sent to an inpatient rehabilitation facility, or IRF, before they return home.

Under the current Medicare payment system, Medicare agrees to cover a certain number of days for patients to stay in a rehabilitation facility, depending on their health situation.

However, there is little information about variables such as a patient’s home life or support system that impact expected lengths of stay. Some of those variables may affect discharge planning decisions and how well the patient does when they return home.

The researchers compared the amount of time that Medicare determined patients would need to spend in rehab with the actual length of their stay. They also analyzed social support based on information that the patients provided.

The study showed that having strong social support influences how long patients need to spend in rehab. Compared with patients who have strong support from family or friends, those with little social support were more likely to need extra time than predicted by Medicare.