Abstract:
The purpose of this descriptive correlational study was to examine depression in patients with lumbar spondylosis and the relationships between uncertainty in Illness, pain, social support and depression among these patients. Study participants consisted of 190 lumbar spondylotic patients randomly selected from the tertiary hospitals in Bangkok. The instruments for data collection included a demographic data form, the Mishel Uncertainty in Illness Scale-Community Form, a Brief Pain Inventory-short form, Social support questionnaire, and CES-D Scale. Content validity of the questionnaires was validated by five experts. Internal consistency reliability determined by Cronbach's alpha coefficients were 0.70, 0.89, 0.83 and 0.96 respectively. Data were analyzed using Pearsons Product moment correlation coefficient. The findings were presented as follows: 1. The majority of patients with lumbar spondylosis reported no depressive symptoms (X-bar = 15.46). 2. Uncertainty in Illness was significantly related to depression among patients with lumbar spondylosis (r = .20; p <.01). 3. Current pain was significantly related to depression among patients with lumbar spondylosis (r = -0.34; p <.01). 4. There was no correlation between social support and depression among patients with lumbar spondylosis.