Forms of support giving and receiving, and their associations with self-rated health and general self-efficacy among older adults in Switzerland

Our aim was to examine associations between determinants of functional ability as defined by the World Health Organization: intrinsic psychological domain captured by general self-efficacy and self-rated health, and social environment captured by support given and received. 286 Swiss-based older adults, recruited via multiple channels, completed a web-based survey. Older adults reported providing more support than they perceived receiving, particularly within informal networks of spouses/partners, children, friends, and neighbors. They also reported high levels of general self-efficacy and good to very good self-rated health. Out of thirteen forms of support giving and receiving, only providing support to friends/acquaintances and to fellow club/association members correlated positively with general self-efficacy. Self-rated health showed negative associations with receiving support from various sources, but was unrelated to providing support. On the basis of these results, we propose new avenues for examining associations between social support, general self-efficacy, and self-rated health.