Social support was shown to be an important factor buffering negative effects of stress in a range of clinical populations. Little is known, however, about the role of social support in the population of patients with psoriasis although strong psychosocial stress has been implicated in this disease. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between social support and selected indices of adaptation to life with the disease, including health-related quality of life, depressive symptoms and acceptance of life with the disease, in a sample of patients with psoriasis. Additionally, gender differences in these relationships were analyzed. One-hundred-four patients with psoriasis completed psychological tests measuring disease-related social support, health-related quality of life, depressive symptoms and acceptance of life with the disease. Psoriasis severity was assessed by Psoriasis Area and Severity Index. The patients reporting higher social support levels had significantly higher quality of life, lower depression levels, and higher acceptance of life with the disease. The strengths of these effects, however, were different in women and men. Higher social support was slightly more closely associated with better acceptance of life with the disease in men than in women. However, higher social support was more closely associated to lower depression and better quality of life in women than in men. Among different types of social support, tangible support was found to be the best predictor for the all adaptation indices. Effects of social support perceived by psoriasis patients on adaptation to the disease may be gender-related and exact pathways of these effects may depend on the type on the dimension of social support and the selected type of adaptation indicator. Tangible support seems the most important type of support contributing to better adaptation in both women and men with psoriasis.

Purpose The purpose of the study was to determine health-related behaviors, profile of health locus of control (HLC), and to assess the relationships between these constructs among patients suffering from chronic somatic diseases. Material and Methods Three-hundred adult patients suffering from various chronic diseases participated in the study. The patients' mean age was 54.6 years (SD = 17.57). Results No statistically significant differences were found between the different clinical groups in health-related behavior, acceptance of illness, internal HLC or chance HLC. Patients with neurologic conditions showed slightly lower powerful others HLC than did some other clinical groups. Health-related behavior was significantly positively related to all three categories of HLC, with most prominent associations observed with powerful others HLC. Only one type of health-related behavior – preventive behavior – correlated significantly and negatively with acceptance of illness. Differences in the frequency of health-related behavior were also found due to gender (women showing more healthy nutritional habits than men), age (older subjects showing more frequent health-promoting behavior), education (higher education was associated with less frequent health-promoting behavior) and marital status (widowed subjects reporting more frequent health-promoting behavior). Conclusions Health-related behavior in patients with chronic diseases seems to be unrelated to a specific diagnosis; however it shows associations with both internal and external HLC. Sociodemographic factors are also crucial factors determining frequency of health-related behavior in such patients.

Social support and knowledge of the disease have been shown to facilitate adaptation to a chronic disease. However, the adaptation process is not fully understood. We hypothesized that these factors can contribute to better adaptation to the disease through their impact on disease-related cognitive appraisal. To analyze the links between social support and the knowledge of the disease, on one hand, and disease-related appraisals, on the other hand, one hundred fifty-eight women with stress UI, aged 32 to 79, took part in the study. Questionnaire measures of knowledge of UI, social support, and disease-related appraisals were used in the study. The level of knowledge correlated significantly negatively with the appraisal of the disease as Harm. The global level of social support correlated significantly positively with three disease-related appraisals: Profit, Challenge, and Value. Four subgroups of patients with different constellations of social support and knowledge of the disease were identified in cluster analysis and were demonstrated to differ significantly on four disease-related appraisals: Profit, Challenge, Harm, and Value. Different cognitive appraisals of UI may be specifically related to social support and knowledge of the disease, with social support affective positive disease-related appraisals, and the knowledge affecting the appraisal of Harm.