Social support related to the sleep pattern in Taiwanese hospitalized adults

Abstract

Social support has been implicated in health outcome through the functions of neuroendocrine responses. One function of body neuroendocrine responses is sleep behavior. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis of a positive relationship between social support and adaptation to sleep in Taiwanese hospitalized adults. Subjects for this descriptive study included 94 Taiwanese hospitalized adults from two hospitals. Of the 94 patients, 30 had social support with the presence of a relative or friend. Subjects were required to have spent two consecutive hospitalized or post-operative nights in order to be included in the study. Data analysis showed an insignificant difference between supported and unsupported groups in terms of disturbance and effectiveness of sleep. It is recommended that more appropriate measurement of social support be used to test the conceptual framework in the future.