The Relationship of Social Support to Quality of Life among Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between social support and quality of life, and the extent to which it explains quality of life among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The sample consisted of 94 outpatients. Two questionnaires entitled ”Social Support Scale” and ”RAND 36-item Health Survey” were used to measure the perceived effectiveness of social support and quality of life in this study. Data were analyzed by using canonical correlation. One statistically significant canonical correlation was found: 0.5043 (P＜0.01). Social support explained 25.43% of the variance of the quality of life. In conclusion, the study results showed that social support was associated with quality of life.