The Social Support Provided by Neighboring People to Physically Disabled Persons Living in Urban Areas

Abstract

This study aims to explain the social support provided by neighboring people in physically disabled persons in urban areas, and fur ther, cor relating it with the awareness about ear thquakes. The questionnaire was administered by mail or interview to 154 subjects introduced from the vocational training center outpatient (the “day care institution”) for physically disabled persons and home care support office in September, 2008. Of these, valid answers of 111 subjects were analyzed. As a result, the mean of the JMSSSS (Jichi Medical School-Social Support Scale) total score of neighboring people was 20.7 ± 6.8. The mean instrumental support was the lowest. The social support provided by neighboring people to physically disabled persons and characteristics to physically disabled persons were not correlated. However, there was a correlation between the social support provided by neighboring people to physically disabled persons and their awareness about the possibility of expecting neighboring people to act as rescuers at the time of earthquakes.