Social support, self-perceived health and mental status of general population of Republic of Srpska.

INTRODUCTION Social support is defined as perception of how other people take care of us, how they understand our needs and give us support. Social support has positive influence on health, adoption of healthy lifestyles and recovery from illness. OBJECTIVE The aim of this paper is to detect the level of social support across different socio-demographic groups and to analyze relationship between social support, self-perceived health and mental well-being. METHODS Data from the 2010 Household Survey (National Health Survey) for the Republic of Srpska were used. A specially designed questionnaire was used, developed on the basis of internationally recognized and accepted instruments. Representative sample of 4,178 persons aged 18 and older were interviewed. RESULTS The obtained results showed that the level of social support was the lowest among the oldest population, persons with the lowest level of education unemployed and unmarried.There was present relationship between social support, self-perceived health and mental health (distress/stress and vitality). It was detected that males mostly lived alone relying on help from neighbors, while females mostly lived with other household members and relied more on persons close to them. CONCLUSION Social support appears to be related to mental status and self-perceived health.The results are intertwined with different age groups and they can provide baseline for further analysis of causal relationship between social support and mental and physical health among different age categories. Detecting a link among social support, mental and physical health could provide insight into the mechanisms of social support influencing health status and behaviour.