Authors : Mahadzirah Mohamad, Nurhikmah Badarilah, Nor Azman Mat Ali and Harmy Yusoff
Abstract: Drug-abuse population were reported increasing all over the world along with the inmate’s population. Drug abuser and inmates, considered as minority groups were reported receiving poor health treatment and untreated condition in most developing countries. Examining the health status among drug-abuse inmates would enable prison institutions to find the predicting factors that could improve health status among drug-abuse inmates. It was reported that factors such as social support could influence the improvement of health status among drug abusers. The main objective of this study was to find out whether social support does influence the health status of drug-abuse inmates or not. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to drug-abuse inmates at several prisons in Malaysia. The selection of the respondents was conducted using simple random-sampling method. The instrument comprised of two major sections measuring social support and health status. The research hypotheses were tested using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). This study discovered a positive relationship between social support and health status. The findings of the proved that social support does influenced inmate’s health status.
Mahadzirah Mohamad, Nurhikmah Badarilah, Nor Azman Mat Ali and Harmy Yusoff, 2017. Modeling the Relationship of Social Support on Health Status. The Social Sciences, 12: 1006-1013.