Abstract:
The study examined the influence of social support and gender on depressive symptoms among orthopaedic patients. Three hundred (161 males and 139 females) patients of National Orthopaedic hospital, Enugu, aged 20 to 35 years (mean age = 23.90, SD = 2.70), participated in the study. Social Support was measured using Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, while depression was measured using Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Two-way analysis of variance showed that social support and gender did not significantly influence patients’ depressive symptoms. Further, gender did not also significantly influence depressive symptoms among orthopaedic patients. Thus, there was no interaction effect between social support and gender on depression. The implications of findings were discussed, limitations outlined and recommendations for future studies made.
