Table 1.

Descriptive characteristics of the collected studies and their size effect

Ref. no.	Gender	Target population	n	Sampling Method	General health	Social support	Effect size	p-value
20	M&F	Student college	3261	Census	GHQ-12	Sarason	0.620	0.0001
21	M&F	Elder	312	Stratified	GHQ-12	Unknown	0.243	0.0001
22	M&F	Elder	200	Cluster	GHQ-12	Rook-Ituarte	0.333	0.0001
23	M&F	Employee	300	Stratified	GHQ-28	Social Capital	0.660	0.0001
24	M&F	Student college	136	Stratified	GHQ-28	Philips	0.326	0.0001
25	M&F	Student college	400	Stratified	SCL-25	Zimet	0.209	0.0001
26	M&F	Student	200	Census	GHQ-28	Researcher	0.219	0.002
27	M&F	Student college	102	Census	GHQ-12	Zimet	0.175	0.079
9	M&F	Elder	284	Cluster	GHQ-28	Researcher	0.050	0.404
28	M&F	Employee	320	Cluster	GHQ-28	Katrona	0.323	0.0001
29	F	Abused women	114	Convenience	GHQ-12	Stanford	0.390	0.0001
8	M	Elder	84	Convenience	GHQ-12	Philips	0.677	0.0001
30	M&F	Employee	300	Cluster	GHQ-12	Social Capital	0.121	036.0
31	M&F	Elder	320	Cluster	GHQ-12	Social Capital	0.197	0.0001
32	M&F	Student college	297	Simple Random	GHQ-28	Philips	0.338	0.0001
1	F	Head of Household	325	Simple Random	GHQ-28	Researcher	0.259	0.0001
33	M	Student	200	Stratified	SCL-90	Najarian	0.311	0.002
34	M&F	Student college	150	Simple Random	GHQ-28	Mixed	0.369	0.0001
35	F	Employee	60	Purposive	GHQ-28	Heller	0.330	0.01
36	M	Veteran	210	Stratified	GHQ-28	Zimet	0.310	0.0001
37	M&F	Student college	262	Stratified	GHQ-28	Fleming	0.187	0.002
38	F	MS Patient	83	Convenience	GHQ-28	Zimet	0.176	0.112
39	F	Student college	120	Stratified	GHQ-12	Philips	0.440	0.0001
40	M&F	Student college	300	Cluster	GHQ-28	Philips	0.220	0.0001
41	M&F	Student college	200	Cluster	GHQ-28	Pierce	0.146	0.139
42	M&F	Student college	2776	Census	GHQ-12	Stanford	0.255	0.0001
43	M&F	Immigrant	600	Simple Random	SCL-90	Mixed	0.510	0.0001
44	M&F	Student college	428	Simple Random	GHQ-28	Zimet	0.370	0.0001
45	F	Abused women	412	Convenience	GHQ-28	Researcher	0.100	0.177
46	M&F	Employee	149	Census	GHQ-28	Stanford	0.262	0.0001
47	M&F	Nurse	380	Clustered	GHQ-12	Philips	0.401	0.0001
10	M&F	Employee	175	Stratified	GHQ-28	Rosenberg	0.077	0.341
48	M&F	AIDS Patient	70	convenience	GHQ-28	Zimet	0.330	0.005
49	M&F	MS Patient	120	Simple Random	SF-36	Philips	0.341	0.0001
50	M&F	Nurse	108	Convenience	GHQ-28	Philips	0.210	0.004
51	M&F	AIDS Patient	120	Simple Random	GHQ-28	Philips	0.110	0.232
52	M&F	Married workers	400	Cluster	SCL-90	Heller	0.614	0.0001
53	M&F	Dialysis patient	60	Census	GHQ-28	Heller	0.430	0. 001
54	M&F	Public people	384	Cluster	GHQ-28	Researcher	0.352	0.0001
55	M&F	Teacher	250	Simple Random	GHQ-28	Zimet	0.302	0.0001
11	M&F	Elder	200	Convenience	GHQ-28	Zimet	0.066	0.354
56	M&F	Student college	2916	Census	GHQ-12	Stanford	0.560	0.0001
57	M&F	blind and deaf children	131	Convenience	GHQ-28	Sherbourne	0.460	0.0001
58	M&F	Student college	320	Cluster	36-SF	Najarian	0.410	0.0001
59	M&F	Diabetic patients	50	Convenience	WHO	Zimet	0.520	0.0001
60	M&F	Student college	400	Cluster	GHQ-28	Heller	0.350	0.0001
61	M&F	Shahed Student colleges	133	Convenience	GHQ-28	Heller	0.378	0.0001
62	M	Teacher	200	Stratified	GHQ-28	Sarason	0.202	0.004
63	M&F	Student college	300	Stratified	GHQ-28	Researcher	0.295	0.0001
6	F	Mothers	100	Cluster	GHQ-28	Zimet	0.710	0.0001
64	F	Student	351	Cluster	GHQ-12	Philips	0.260	0.0001
65	M	Employee	267	Convenience	SCL-90	Philips	0.177	0.004
66	M&F	Public people	877	Simple Random	GHQ-28	Researcher	0.191	0.0001
67	M&F	Elder	160	Convenience	Researcher	Researcher	0.146	0.066
68	F	Student	500	Cluster	36-SF	Zimet	0.298	0.0001
69	M&F	Transsexual	97	Convenience	GHQ-28	Zimet	0.532	0.0001
70	M&F	Diabetic patients	120	Simple Random	SCL-90	Sameni	0.280	0.002
71	M&F	Student college	392	Cluster	GHQ-28	Zimet	0.280	0.0001
72	M&F	Elder	356	Cluster	GHQ-28	Berkman	0.357	0.0001
73	M&F	Infertile couples	130	Convenience	GHQ-28	Zimet	0.140	0.112
74	M&F	Disabled children	284	Convenience	MHC	Zimet	0.377	0.0001
75	M&F	Public people	271	Stratified	GHQ-28	Katrona	0.613	0.0001
76	F	Infertile Women	95	Convenience	MHI	Zimet	0.440	0.0001
77	M&F	Elder	180	Cluster	36-SF	Zimet	0.222	0.003