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Effects of social support interventions on depressive symptoms and quality of life among older adults : a systematic review and meta-analysis

Faronbi, Joel O
; 
Eromosele, Blessing
; 
Fawole, Henrietta O
; 
Idowu, Opeyemi A
; 
Akinrolie, Olayinka
; 
Akinsulore, Adesanmi
; 
Adeniji, Tolulope
; 
Ibekaku, Michael Chigozie
; 
Oyinlola, Oluwagbemiga
; 
Faronbi, Grace O
... show 1 more
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Interventions that include participation in social or group connections as measures to prevent or reduce depression have received little attention. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to determine the effects of social support interventions on depressive symptoms and Quality of life (QoL) among older adults. METHODS: A detailed search of six databases comprising Medline, CINAHL, PubMed, Cochrane Library, African Journals Online and Web of Science Core Collections was conducted until January 2025. A review protocol was developed and registered with the PROSPERO database (ID-CRD42021283342). A meta-analysis was used to synthesize the findings of the included studies based on subgroups of social support interventions. Of the 1524 articles found from the six databases, only 16 randomised controlled trials (14 parallel and 2 cluster) were eligible for inclusion. CONCLUSION: Social support interventions included emotional support, social engagement, instrumental, instrumental and appraisal, and social engagement and appraisal support. Meta-analysis findings indicated that social support interventions had non-significant effects on depression and QoL among older adults. Social support interventions have the potential to reduce depressive symptoms and improve QoL. However, current evidence is insufficient to determine the impact of social support interventions on depression and QoL in older adults.
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Date
2025
Type
Article
Subject
Depression
 Aging
 Social support
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NottsHC Depression
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Faronbi, J. O., Eromosele, B., Fawole, H. O., Idowu, O. A., Akinrolie, O., Akinsulore, A., Adeniji, T., Ibekaku, M. C., Oyinlola, O., Faronbi, G. O., et al. (2025). Effects of social support interventions on depressive symptoms and quality of life among older adults : a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Geriatrics, 25 (1), pp.512.
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https://mider.dspace7.openrepository.com/handle/20.500.12904/19762
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Springer Nature
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© The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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