Only self-perceived social support was reduced in the
diabetic compared to non-diabetic patients when assessing
the kidney-specific aspects of HRQOL. This may
have clinical implications, as inadequate social support
could potentially affect compliance and adherence to
therapy. Furthermore, supportive relationship is a potentially
controllable factor and enhanced support may be
protective with regard to mental and physical health
[28]. Social support would also be expected to increase
self-esteem, improve emotional control and enable more
successful coping. Our findings of reduced social support
in diabetic patients contrast the observations made
in other studies [6,15], but the numerical difference in
social support between these groups was of greater magnitude
in the Danish study [6], and had a borderline significance
level of 0.06.