Resumo

VEGA ANGARITA, O.M.  e  GONZALEZ ESCOBAR, D.S.. Social support key element in confronting chronic illness. Enferm. glob. [online]. 2009, n.16. ISSN 1695-6141.

Technology and advances in medicine allow people to survive fatal illness and thus, the incidences of chronic illness that are a leading cause of disability. Social support has been shown to have a positive influence on the experience of caring for chronic illness and family caregivers. It is described as "a process of interaction between individuals or groups who through systematic contact establish links of friendship and information, receive material, emotional, and affective support in solving everyday situations in times of crisis." This article is to review the concept of social support from its origin, highlighting several definitions that experts have given to the issue and citing examples of its application in research with contributions from Sociology, Psychology, Medicine, and Nursing. It constitutes the reference framework of the assessing study that aims to determine the effectiveness of social support given, through a network with state-of-art technology, to family caregivers of persons with chronic illness in Latin America.

Palavras-chave : Chronic Illness; Family Caregivers; Social Support.

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