[Personal support and mortality: a cohort analysis of the National Questionnaire Survey 1984-86].
OBJECTIVE
The aim of the study is to investigate the association between personal support and mortality experience in Germany.


METHODS
Data source is the Life Expectancy Survey of the Federal Institute for Population Research (Wiesbaden). This study comprises the National Questionnaire Survey of the German Cardiovascular Prevention Study (1984-86) and a mortality follow-up (1998). Included are 7240 persons with German nationality aged 31-69 years at baseline. 957 persons (13.2%) died during the observation period from 1984-1998. An additive index combining familiy status and number of persons available in emergency situations was administered as indicator for social support. The multivariate statistical analysis was performed with the cox-regression method.


RESULTS
Persons with low or very low personal support yielded in both sexes significantly higher relative risks for mortality during the 14 years of follow-up. The relative risks in the regression models including confounding factors for low personal support were 1.49 (p < 0.01) in males and 1.67 (p < 0.01) in females, and for very low personal support 1.81 (p < 0.05) in males and 2.31 (p < 0.01) in females.


CONCLUSIONS
These results are indicating an increasing importance of personal support for the mortality experience in the general population.
Helmert
Uwe
U
Zentrum for Sozialpolitik, Universität Bremen. uhelmert@zes.uni-bremen.de
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001794:Blood Pressure; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012306:Risk; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking; D012923:Social Class; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires