The impact of Social Support on PROMs among patients with COPD in Primary Care: A cross-sectional study

Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) offer valuable insights into effectively evaluating the disease, and social support seems to influence these measures. Therefore, our study aimed to assess social support and its correlation with different PROMs among patients with COPD in primary care settings. Method: This cross-sectional study included patients with COPD from six primary care centers in Crete, Greece. We collected the sociodemographic characteristics, medical history, disease-specific quality of life by using the COPD assessment test (CAT), subjective sleep complaints based on Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Athens Insomnia scale (AIS) and Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS), fatigue using Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) and phycological parameters, using Patient Health Questionnaire-9 item (PHQ-9) and General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) questionnaires. Social support was measured using the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS). Associations between social support and PROMs were analyzed using multivariate models. Results: Out of 168 patients with COPD, 114 (68.9%) exhibited low social support. After adjusting for age, gender, obesity, chronic diseases, marital status, and education level, the MPSSP displayed an inverse relationship with CAT, FSS, PHQ-9, GAD-7, and AIS scores. Moreover, the presence of low social support (MSPSS total ≤5) was positively associated with COPD symptoms (CAT score≥10) (OR = 3.97, 95% CI 1.86–8.44; p <0.01), fatigue (FSS≥36) (OR = 2.74, 95% CI 1.31–5.74; p = 0.01), insomnia symptoms (AIS≥6) (OR = 5.17 95% CI 2.23-12.01; p<0.01), while the association with depressive symptoms was marginally significant (OR = 3.1, 95% CI 0.93–10.36; p = 0.07). Discussion: Our results suggest that low levels of social support are a significant issue for patients with COPD. Therefore, policymakers could utilize our findings to improve the quality of life of patients with COPD in primary care settings.