A little knowledge: Caregiver burden in schizophrenia in Malawi

Sefasi, Anthony; Crumlish, Niall; Samalani, Prince; Kinsella, Anthony; O’Callaghan, Eadbhard; Chilale, Harris K

doi:10.1007/s00127-007-0276-y

Cited by 45 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…These findings are supported by previous studies which indicated that higher burden was associated with an increased number of hours spent caring for the family members with mental illness [18, 27]. When the responsibilities of caring for the family members with mental illness are distributed over more than one member of the family, the burden is expected to be much less [28–30]. Accordingly, in the current study, “Worrying” was highest among caregivers living in families with relatively fewer members (<6 members).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Assessment of the burden on caregivers of patients with mental disorders in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Alzahrani¹,

Fallata²,

Alabdulwahab³

et al. 2017

BMC Psychiatry

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BackgroundMental disorders are considered important public health problems not only to people with mental illness but also their caregivers. As is the case in many countries, the deinstitutionalization of mental health services in Saudi Arabia, has meant that informal caregivers are shouldering responsibilities for which they are not usually prepared; therefore, the current study was aimed at assessment of the burden on caregivers of people with mental illness.MethodsThrough a cross-sectional design, a sample of the caregivers of people with mental illness (n = 377) was selected randomly from a psychiatric hospital in Jeddah. An Arabic version of the Involvement Evaluation Questionnaire (IEQ) was used for collection of data. The data were analyzed on the subscale scores and the 27 items in two ways. First, we used the summed scores for the subscales based on the Likert scale (0–4) for univariate and multivariate statistical analyses, as recommended. We also used parametric statistics (t-tests, one-way ANOVA) because the IEQ subscale scores were fairly normally distributed.ResultsMales constituted more than one-half of the participating caregivers (55%), with a mean age of 36.6, SD = 11.4 years. As reported by the caregivers, most of the patients were males (62.7%) with a mean age of 33.8, SD = 13.7 years and a range of 17–90 years old. The total mean IEQ burden score of the caregivers was 38.4, SD = 17.5. “Tension” was significantly prominent among younger caregivers aged ≤30 years. “Worrying” was significantly higher among caregivers living with their spouse and children and those living in families with relatively fewer members (<6 members). “Urging” was significantly higher among caregivers who are living with the patient in the same household and those who had been in close contact with the patient for 28 days in the four weeks prior to the study (13.4, SD = 6.8) p < 0.05. Meanwhile, “Urging” was also significantly higher among caregivers caring for mentally ill females (13.5, SD = 6.6) and those not receiving any kind of professional support (12.8, SD = 6.7). The overall burden and the subscale scores were highest among caregivers caring for a close relative such as a parent (44.1, SD = 17.6), son/daughter (39.1, SD = 12.9), sibling (37.1, SD = 18.6), or spouse (37.1, SD = 18.6) p < 0.05.ConclusionCare for people with mental illness is burdensome for their caregivers, the magnitude of burden is potentially augmented by factors related to the patients and households. These factors should be considered when planning for preparing caregivers to cope with people with mental illness in Saudi Arabia.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Assessment of the burden on caregivers of patients with mental disorders in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Alzahrani¹,

Fallata²,

Alabdulwahab³

et al. 2017

BMC Psychiatry

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“…Higher educational level appears to provide an advantage to the caregivers. It is speculated that better knowledge give rise to better capability to cope with their caregiving task as well as other stressors in life (10,43). Caregivers with higher education possibly have more secured job and stable financial income that reduce the financial burden on caregiving task, thus improving their satisfaction for lives.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Schizophrenia in Malaysian families: A study on factors associated with quality of life of primary family caregivers

ZamZam

Midin

Hooi

et al. 2011

Int J Ment Health Syst

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Background: Schizophrenia is a chronic illness which brings detrimental effects in the caregivers' health. This study was aimed at highlighting the socio-demographic, clinical and psychosocial factors associated with the subjective Quality of Life (QOL) of Malaysian of primary family caregivers of subjects with schizophrenia attending an urban tertiary care outpatient clinic in Malaysia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed to study patient, caregiver and illness factors associated with the QOL among 117 individuals involved with caregiving for schizophrenia patients. The study used WHOQOL-BREF to assess caregivers' QOL and Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) to assess the severity of patients' symptoms. Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) assessed the stress level due to life events. Results: The mean scores of WHOQOL-BREF in physical, psychological, social and environmental domains were 66.62 (14.36), 61.32 (15.52), 62.77 (17.33), 64.02 (14.86) consecutively. From multiple regression analysis, factors found to be significantly associated with higher QOL were higher educational level among caregivers in social and environmental domains; caregivers not having medical problem/s in physical and psychological domains; later onset and longer illness duration of illness in social domains; patients not attending day care program in environmental domain; lower BPRS score in physical and environmental domains. SRRS score of caregivers was also found to have a significant negative correlation with QOL in environmental and psychological domains. Other factors were not significantly associated with QOL. Conclusion: Caregivers with more social advantages such as higher educational level and physically healthier and dealing with less severe illness had significantly higher QOL in various aspects. Supporting the caregivers in some of these modifiable factors in clinical practice is important to achieve their higher level QOL.

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“…Although some sources argue that caregiver burden will decrease as the caregivers' level of knowledge on the disease increases (15,16), there are also studies showing that family burden increases as the level of knowledge of the disease increases (17). When deciding on the roadmap in the process of preparing support programs for patients and their families, it is important to know the factors associated with caregiver burden.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%