TY - JOUR T1 - Do Older People Benefit from Having a Confidant? An Oklahoma Physicians Resource/Research Network (OKPRN) Study JF - The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine JO - J Am Board Fam Med SP - 9 LP - 15 DO - 10.3122/jabfm.2013.01.120051 VL - 26 IS - 1 AU - Frank H. Lawler AU - James W. Mold AU - Laine H. McCarthy Y1 - 2013/01/01 UR - http://www.jabfm.org/content/26/1/9.abstract N2 - Objective: The objective was to determine whether having a confidant was associated with improved health-related quality of life (HRQoL) or survival in older, community-dwelling individuals. Methods: This prospective cohort study included 23 family physician members of the Oklahoma Physicians Research/Resource Network in 9 practices and 852 community-dwelling adults 65 or older participating in the Oklahoma Longitudinal Assessment of Health Outcomes of Mature Adults Studies. Longitudinal models analyzed changes in self-administered Quality of Well-Being (QWB-SA) scores over an average (S.D.) of 2.51 (1.28) years. Cox proportional hazards models assessed variables possibly associated with mortality over an average survival time (+/-S.D.) of 9.22 (3.24) years. We controlled for chronic illnesses, baseline age, gender, marital status, income, race, BMI, education and specified Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 (SF-36) domain scores. Results: Initially, 740 participants (87%) had a confidant. Being married was strongly associated with having a confidant (91.9% vs. 77.8%, p<0.0001). A confidant was associated with better SF-36 domain scores (p<0.0001), less morbidity, higher baseline QWB-SA scores and favorable changes in QWB-SA (p<0.0001). Unadjusted risk of death (37.8% vs 46.4%, p=0.08) was not lower. Kaplan-Meier confidant status survival curves were not statistically different (p=0.16). Conclusions: Older people with a confidant demonstrated enhanced HRQoL maintenance over the short term, but not greater survival. ER -