OpenLB
Open Library of Bioscience

This study was conducted to investigate legitimacy aspects of social network relations in a group of women with undefined musculoskeletal disorder. The aim was to study, from the viewpoint of the patient, the extent to which the symptoms of musculoskeletal disorder have legitimacy within the social network and how this legitimacy affects the patient's social network relations. A structural equation model was used to find the model best fitting the data arising between social support, legitimacy aspects and negative outcomes in the social network relations. The results can be summarised as indicating that illness legitimacy does affect availability of social relations and social support from friends, relatives and family. Of particular importance to this process is the patient's own perception of the legitimacy of her disorder. These results also confirmed previous findings indicating that greater attention should be paid to the impact of negative aspects of social support and its affect on patient health.