earticle

영어

This study examined the relationship between social support and depressive symptom among the middle and old-aged people, using dataset of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing(KLoSA 3rd). The subjects were 7,874 persons aged 45 and over. Using this data, social support variables and its relation to depressions was observed based on social network model. A multiple regression model was used to study an association between social support and depressive symptom, controlling for socio-economic characteristics, health status and behavior. Also, this paper run two subgroup regression models based on gender of subjects (male, female), controlling for confounding variables. Authors found that there was lower the number of meetings with friends (1～3 times in a week: b=0.597, p<0.0001; 1～2 times in a month: b=0.609, p<0.0001; 1～6 times in a year or under: b=1.598, p<0.0001) and negative relationship between spouse satisfaction (b=-0.007, p=0.0237), children satisfaction (b=-0.019, p<0.0001) and depressive symptom. Also quantitative effect differences were compared according to gender and its effect on depression. Compared to the male group, female group showed significant difference in quantitative effect with number of meetings with friends and spouse satisfaction, but children satisfaction didn’t show clear differences according to gender. This study suggested the importance of social support for promoting mental health among the middle and old-aged people.