PMID- 24592728
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20140408
LR  - 20220309
IS  - 1210-7778 (Print)
IS  - 1210-7778 (Linking)
VI  - 21
IP  - 4
DP  - 2013 Dec
TI  - Quality of life of key caregivers of schizophrenia patients and association with 
      kinship.
PG  - 220-3
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Reports on the quality of life (QOL) of family caregivers of 
      schizophrenia patients are uncommon. Relations of different degree of kinship to 
      caregivers' QOL are unexplored, but may be relevant. The purpose of this study 
      was to assess the subjective QOL of caregivers of stable outpatients with 
      diagnosis of schizophrenia compared with controls, and to assess factors 
      associated with QOL in this population. METHODS: Responses of 138 schizophrenia 
      outpatient' family caregivers to the Quality of Life, Enjoyment and Satisfaction 
      Questionnaire (QLESQSF) were compared with those of a sex- and age-matched 
      control group. Patients were assessed with the Positive and Negative Symptom 
      Scale (PANSS) and the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) and data were 
      collected for kinship relationship and hospitalization. RESULTS: Group of 
      caregivers had significantly lower QOL compared with controls (t=11.347; df=271; 
      p=0.0001). Caregivers' QOL correlated significantly with their age and differed 
      according to the degree of kinship and marriage status. ANCOVA, with age as 
      covariate, performed to asses the differences in QOL according to kinship, showed 
      that parents and own children had significantly lower QOL than patients' siblings 
      who were also caregivers. CONCLUSION: QOL of the schizophrenia patients' 
      caregivers is lower in comparisons to controls. It depends on the degree of 
      kinship and caregivers' age. Parents and own children have lower QOL than 
      siblings. Psycho-educational intervention programmes should target specific needs 
      of the family as a whole, depending also on their age and kinship relationship.
FAU - Margetic, Branka Aukst
AU  - Margetic BA
AD  - Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital Center, Zagreb, Croatia. 
      branka.aukst-margetic@zg.t-com.hr
FAU - Jakovljevic, Miro
AU  - Jakovljevic M
AD  - Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital Center, Zagreb, Croatia.
FAU - Furjan, Zvjezdana
AU  - Furjan Z
AD  - Neuropsychiatric Hospital Dr. Ivan Barbot, Popovaca, Croatia.
FAU - Margetic, Branimir
AU  - Margetic B
AD  - Neuropsychiatric Hospital Dr. Ivan Barbot, Popovaca, Croatia.
FAU - Marsanic, Vlatka Boricevic
AU  - Marsanic VB
AD  - Psychiatric Hospital for Children and Youth, Zagreb, Croatia.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PL  - Czech Republic
TA  - Cent Eur J Public Health
JT  - Central European journal of public health
JID - 9417324
SB  - IM
MH  - Adult
MH  - Aged
MH  - Caregivers/*psychology
MH  - Family/*psychology
MH  - Female
MH  - Humans
MH  - Male
MH  - Middle Aged
MH  - *Quality of Life
MH  - *Schizophrenia
EDAT- 2014/03/07 06:00
MHDA- 2014/04/09 06:00
CRDT- 2014/03/06 06:00
PHST- 2014/03/06 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2014/03/07 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2014/04/09 06:00 [medline]
AID - 10.21101/cejph.a3918 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Cent Eur J Public Health. 2013 Dec;21(4):220-3. doi: 10.21101/cejph.a3918.