The DOI matches its Crossref record; 57 of the 58 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The MOS social support survey
Abstract
This paper describes the development and evaluation of a brief, multidimensional, self-administered, social support survey that was developed for patients in the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS), a two-year study of patients with chronic conditions. This survey was designed to be comprehensive in terms of recent thinking about the various dimensions of social support. In addition, it was designed to be distinct from other related measures. We present a summary of the major conceptual issues considered when choosing items for the social support battery, describe the items, and present findings based on data from 2987 patients (ages 18 and older). Multitrait scaling analyses supported the dimensionality of four functional support scales (emotional/informational, tangible, affectionate, and positive social interaction) and the construction of an overall functional social support index. These support measures are distinct from structural measures of social support and from related health measures. They are reliable (all Alphas greater than 0.91), and are fairly stable over time. Selected construct validity hypotheses were supported.
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In the citing paper
“Interview questions were informed by the COVID-19 Exposure and Family Impact Survey [19], Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Scale [20], Food Security Module from the US Department of Agriculture [21], and Everyday Discrimination Scale [22].”
From Material Hardship and Stress from COVID-19 in Immigrant Chinese American Families with Infants (2022) · cites this paper as [20]
In the citing paper
“The interview guide (Table 1) was informed by domains of the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Scale, a validated scale that assesses informational, emotional, and material social support (Sherbourne & Stewart, 1991).”
From Infant Feeding Practices and Social Support Networks Among Immigrant Chinese American Mothers With Economic Disadvantage in New York City (2023) · cites this paper as Sherbourne & Stewart, 1991
In the citing paper
“It had excellent reliability with 0.97 for the overall scale and subscales with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.96, 0.94, 0.91, and 0.92, respectively.”
From A randomised controlled trial comparing internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT) with and without main carer access versus treatment-as-usual for depression and anxiety among breast cancer survivors: Study protocol (2021) · cites this paper as Sherbourne and Stewart, 1991
In the citing paper
“Perceived social support was measured in the baseline questionnaire with the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS)–Social Support Survey [56]. This validated scale contains 19-items”
In the citing paper
“younger cancer patients experience higher levels of distress than older cancer patients [44]”
From Uptake and adherence to an online intervention for cancer-related distress: older age is not a barrier to adherence but may be a barrier to uptake (2017) · cites this paper as [44]
Citations
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Research works printed but not linked: 3
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Smith, B. W., Dalen, J., Wiggins, K., Tooley, E., Christopher, P., & Bernard, J. (2008) · International Journal of Behavioral Medicine · doi:10.1080/10705500802222972 · Cited by 6,439
Lubben, J., Blozik, E., Gillmann, G., Iliffe, S., von Renteln Kruse, W., Beck, J. C., & Stuck, A. E. (2006) · The Gerontologist · doi:10.1093/geront/46.4.503 · Cited by 2,123
Psychological Sequelae of the September 11 Terrorist Attacks in New York City
Galea, S., Ahern, J., Resnick, H. S., Kilpatrick, D. G., Bucuvalas, M. J., Gold, J., & Vlahov, D. (2002) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejmsa013404 · Cited by 1,905
Predicting chemotherapy toxicity in older adults with cancer: a prospective multicenter study
Hurria, A., Togawa, K., Mohile, S. G., Owusu, C., Klepin, H. D., Gross, C. P., Lichtman, S. M., Gajra, A., Bhatia, S., Katheria, V., et al. (2011) · Journal of Clinical Oncology · doi:10.1200/jco.2011.34.7625 · Cited by 1,841
The effect of patient race and socio-economic status on physicians' perceptions of patients
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Metadata
- Authors
- Sherbourne, C. D., & Stewart, A. L.
- Affiliations
- RAND Corporation (US)
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- ORCID
- Stewart, Anita L.
- Venue
- Social Science & Medicine
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1991-01
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 705-714
- ISSN
- 0277-9536 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2110356839
- Cited by
- 6,643
- References
- 58
- Citations by year
- 2026: 261 · 2025: 343 · 2024: 360 · 2023: 388 · 2022: 405 · 2021: 507 · 2020: 390 · 2019: 392 · 2018: 307 · 2017: 301 · 2016: 343 · 2015: 317 · 2014: 299 · 2013: 262 · 2012: 265
- FWCI
- 11.96
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Social Science & Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Research and Theory › Health Education and Validation
- Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
- Keywords
- social support, Medical Outcomes Study, chronic disease, functional social support, emotional support, information support, tangible support, affectionate support, positive social interaction, construct validity, reliability statistics, scale development, self-administered questionnaire
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Health Status, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Middle Aged, Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care, Surveys and Questionnaires, Social Support, Statistics as Topic, Reproducibility of Results
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