Association between social support and the severity of positive symptoms in rural community-dwelling patients with schizophrenia during the COVID-19 pandemic

• Published in: BMC psychiatry 2024-02, Vol.24 (1), p.124-7, Article 124
• Main Authors: Liu, Yudan, Liu, Hongying, Chen, Siyu, Ren, Jidong, Tian, Xiaobing
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Care and treatment; China; COVID-19; Cross-Sectional Studies; Development and progression; Epidemics; Family income; Gender; Health aspects; Health services; Humans; Independent Living; Marital status; Mental disorders; Mental health care; Methods; Pandemics; Patient compliance; Positive symptoms; Psychological aspects; Psychopathology; Rehabilitation; Rural areas; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenia - epidemiology; Social aspects; Social interactions; Social networks; Social Support; Stigma; Urban areas
• ISSN: 1471-244X; 1471-244X
• DOI: 10.1186/s12888-024-05571-z

This study examined the association between social support and the severity of positive symptoms in rural community-dwelling schizophrenia patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. The cross-sectional study included 665 rural community-dwelling schizophrenia patients investigated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social support was measured using the Social Support Rating Scale, and positive symptoms were assessed using the Positive Scale extracted from the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. Multiple linear regression was adopted to examine the association of social support with positive symptoms. The scores for total social support, subjective support, objective support and the use of social support were 28.3 ± 5.9, 16.4 ± 5.2, 6.5 ± 1.4 and 5.4 ± 2.8, respectively. Total social support (β = -0.08, 95%CI: -0.13 to -0.02, P