Introduction

Social support is an interactive process where instrumental, emotional, and affective help may be obtained from the social network, having a protective effect upon health and it is a buffer of the stress caused by a disease.

Objective

The study sought to determine the relationship between the social support perceived by individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) and their metabolic control.

Materials and Methods

This was a cross-sectional descriptive study. A sample of 77 participants was established to measure the DM metabolic control with glycosylated hemoglobin criterion (HbA1c) ≤ 7% and the perception of social support evaluated by the questionnaire Medical Outcomes Study. To determine differences between positive and negative social support and their level of compensation of the disease, an analysis was conducted through Student’s t test for independent samples.

Results and Discussion

A higher positive perception of social support exists among women. It was shown that 86.5% of the sample perceives positive social support; 48.6% lives with more than five relatives, while in the group of negative social support 10% have no relatives. Of those perceiving positive social support, 73% had HbA1c ≤ 7 and 85% from the negative social support are decompensated.

Conclusions

A relationship exists between social support perceived by individuals with type 2 DM and metabolic control. It is necessary in the delivery of humanized health services to involve the environment surrounding the patient for it to participate and lead to better coping and controlling the disease.

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