Quality of life of caregivers of schizophrenic patients / Zanariah Abu Bakar

Quality of life (QoL) issues of caregivers are now receiving increasing attention from the researches especially chronic patients' caregivers. This study aims to determine the QoL of caregivers of schizophrenic patients and to compare the QoL of caregivers according to their socio-demographic variables. The data was collected by self­ administered questionnaire. The questionnaire consists of 2 sections. 1) Socio­ demographic and 2) SF-36 Questionnaires. Thirty out-patient schizophrenic caregivers from Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahmah, Klang completed the survey. The majority were male (n=l 6; mean age=51 years; range=22- 76) and married (n=23). The statistical analyses used were descriptive statistics and non-parametric Chi-square goodness of fit, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Generally, QoL scores were moderate in the caregivers as most of the median scores ranged from 50 to 68.75 (score range 1-100). The highest score reported was for Social Functioning (SF) scale (median=87.5; minimum=37.5; maximum=100). On the contrary, the lowest score were reported for Role Limitation-Physical (RP) scale (median=50; minimum=O; maximum=100) and Role Limitation-Emotional (RE) scale (median=50; minimum=0; maximum=100). It was also found that caregivers who were male, younger, those who were better educated, healthy, employed and received monthly income reported higher QoL compared to caregivers who were female, less educated, those having health problems, unemployed and received no monthly income. However, there was no significant difference when comparing the QoL between caregivers' marital status, between caregivers' relationship to patients and between caregivers' race groups. This study leads to better understanding on QoL of schizophrenic caregivers. Such information was important in designing interventions to enhance the caregivers' role, quality of care and QoL.