Instruments Employed in the Evaluation of Social Support

Social support has been approached as an important protection factor for the health of individuals. this study aims at describing the current results of scientific literature regarding the instruments used to assess this construct. a systematic review of the literature was held, being verified articles published in English, Spanish and Portuguese, in the period 2009 - 2014, on SciELO, LILACS and MEDLINE databases. Five instruments were quoted by 59.5% of 314 studies: Medical outcomes study social support Questionnaire (22.8%); Multidimensional scale of perceived social support (17.9%); interpersonal support evaluation List (7.7%); social support Questionnaire (6.2%) and Duke-UNC Functional social support scale (4.9%). the instruments mainly evaluated the perception of individuals with respecto to the availability of social support, being observed associations with physical and psychological symptoms. thus, this study shows contributions by identifying the main scales used for the evaluation of social support, providing a better understanding regarding the underlying measurement and conceptual aspects.