The role of social support in recovery from cardiovascular illness

Social support has been described as having a direct/main effect and/or a buffering effect on health. The buffering hypothesis contends that social support protects the individual from the pathological effects of stress while the direct/main effect hypothesis posits that social support enhances health and well being regardless of the stress level. The links between social support, survival, and quality of life and cardiovascular health and illness have been the subject of much investigation over the last decade. Nurse researchers have contributed to the theory development of social support and the cardiovascular client group. This paper is an interpretive overview of the research contribution of nurses to the social support literature in the area of cardiovascular illness. The review notes research strengths and deficiencies and proposes strategies that would enhance future development of theory on social support in this population.