INFLUENCE OF SELF-EFFICACY AND SOCIAL SUPPORT ON PATIENTS’ PHYSICAL WELL-BEING IN SELECTED STATE HOSPITALS IN OYO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The problems associated with physical well-being of the patients in Nigeria health care settings are numerous and compounding, many of these stem from unresolved psychosocial issues. This study, therefore, examined influence of self-efficacy and social support on the patients’ physical well-being in selected state hospitals in Oyo state, Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study and 400 patients were purposively selected from 10 state hospitals in Oyo state. Only 370 questionnaires were completed and returned. Four different standardized scales namely WHO’s Well-being Scale, Stanford Binet Patient Disease Scale for Self- efficacy, the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (ipq-r), and Social Support Scale with test-retest reliability co-efficient of r=0.71, 0.79, 0.76 and r= 0.89 respectively, were adapted for the study. The data were analyzed using the chi-square statistical tool at 0.05 level of significance. Findings showed that self-efficacy significantly physical well-being of both in-patients and out-patients (x2=21.779, df =2, p<0.05). The findings also revealed that there was no significant relationship between social support and patients’ level of physical well-being (x2=5.849, df = 4, p=0.211 at p>0.05).The result of the third hypothesis showed that patients’ perception of symptoms influenced level of physical well-being (Cal-t = 9.869, p=0.007 at p<0.05).The study concluded that perception of symptoms had significant influence on the physical well-being of the patients. A robust sense of self-efficacy is needed to recover from any form of ailment. It is, therefore, recommended that the Nigerian heath practitioners and other care-givers should embrace the involvement of the family members as part of the treatment part to provide adequate emotional support for the patients rather than stressing the significance of their financial involvement. Services of the professional social workers should be engaged in every state hospital to facilitate adequate quality of life of patients, the entire family and the larger community.