Meta-Analysis for Social Support Degree of Kidney Transplant Recipients: Evidence from China

Social support refers to the subjective and (or) objective influence of various social relationships on individuals, which has a certain influence on the negative emotions of the kidney transplant patients. But there are still significant differences among various studies, so we performed a meta-analysis to analyze the social support degree of kidney transplant recipients. This article searched and selected the relevant cross-sectional surveys from PubMed, Embase, VIP, CNKI, Wanfang, and CBM databases according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria and used the STROBE list combined with the observational research quality evaluation tools of Sanderson to conduct the quality appraisal. The "meta" and "metaphor" packages of the R software version 3.5.1 were used for the meta-analysis. A total of 17 studies with 2697 patients were included. The total scores of the social support and objective support of the renal transplant patients were abundant after the operation, indicating that the economic, physical, and emotional supports from the family, society, and the official organization are accepted. But the subjective support and support utilization degree were general. The support utilization was different among different genders, and female patients were lower than the males. In particular, the female patients relatively presented autism and the social support utilization degree was low. Medical staffs are needed to join the family, hospital, and society to create favorable conditions and improve the social support system and the utilization degree of the social support, thereby promoting the physical and mental health development of the patients.