Reciprocity: A Predictor of Mental Health and Continuity in Elderly People's Relationships? A Review.

Many studies have demonstrated that social relationships confer mental health benefits. This paper aims to identify whether and how reciprocity in social relationships predicts or is associated with mental health benefits as well as with continuity in elderly people's social relationships. The studies reviewed in this paper show that, among elders, being in a balanced or underbenefited reciprocal position predicts better mental health and life quality than being in an overbenefited position.

The effect of social network intervention for women with rheumatoid arthritis.

A partially-controlled intervention study was performed. Female patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were allocated to three groups: the network intervention group (n = 104), the attention control group (n = 85), and the no-treatment control group (n = 75). The network intervention consisted of an assessment session and a network meeting.

The impact of disability and disease duration on social support of women with rheumatoid arthritis.

The objective was to investigate the impact of physical disability and disease duration on the amount of social support received by female patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Two hundred sixty-four patients were assessed in a cross-sectional study. Disease duration had a negative relationship to daily emotional support; the length of disease duration was related to less emotional support.

Social network size of female patients with rheumatoid arthritis compared to healthy controls.

Unlabelled: To estimate how rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the disease duration, and level of physical disability, influence the total size of patients' social network and the size of different subsets. Two hundred sixty four female patients (mean age 57 yrs) with RA of more than 6 yrs duration (mean 20 yrs) were compared to 61 healthy controls matched for sex, age, and residential area. Network size was measured by Social Network Delineation Questionnaire (SNDQ), physical disability by Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ).