Attitudes and Willingness to Accept Long-Acting Injections for Patients With Schizophrenia in Beijing: A Cross-Sectional Investigation Based on Samples From the Communities

Abstract

Background: Schizophrenia has brought a serious disease burden to China. Under the background that community rehabilitation has become the mainstream treatment model, the long-acting injection (LAI) can better prevent recurrence. Some districts in Beijing have also issued policies. This article aims to find out patient's current attitudes toward LAI and provide policy suggestions.Methods: Some patients with schizophrenia in the communities are selected, while the survey format is face-to-face conversation. The content of the self-made questionnaire includes patients' willingness and reasons for accepting LAI treatment. Descriptive statistics, t-test and F-test are used to process the data from questionnaire surveys.Results: About 10% of respondents have had experience using LAI and the current utilization rate is 2.4%. Respondents' willingness to accept LAI is generally low (only 18.1% are willing). The main reason for willingness is no need to take medication every day, while the main reasons for unwillingness are high cost, fear of injection and lack of understanding.Conclusion: Beijing community patients are not very optimistic about LAI's cognition and willingness. Medication habits play an important role in their medication selection decisions. Intervention such as educate clinicians and patients about LAI and provide free injections to patients can be imposed. The promotion of LAI still has a long way to go.

Attitude and influencing factors of patients with schizophrenia toward long-acting injections: A community-based cross-sectional investigation in China

“…These results were consistent with the study of Xiao et al ( 28 ). Perhaps this suggests that it is necessary to develop a personalized intervention plan for the population of this age and disease course structure and carry out targeted medication guidance ( 29 ).…”

Shanghai Community-Based Schizophrenia Cohort (SCS): a protocol for establishing a longitudinal cohort and research database of patients with schizophrenia receiving community-based mental health treatment

“…10 The disease imposes a serious financial burden and considerable socioeconomic loss in this age group. 11 Schizophrenia is a longstanding mental disorder; therefore, the long-term outcomes of patients have received an increasing amount of attention. Interventions to treat relapse and prevent violence have already been implemented among patients.…”

“…In China, the weighted lifetime prevalence and 12-month prevalence of schizophrenia are 0.6%, and the weighted 12-month prevalence of schizophrenia has reached 1.4% for people aged between 18 and 34 years 10. The disease imposes a serious financial burden and considerable socioeconomic loss in this age group 11…”

Long-Acting Injectable Antipsychotic Treatment for Schizophrenia in Asian Population: A Scoping Review

“…This scoping review targeted study populations from Asian countries, eventually including studies from China (the mainland, 30,40,56,57,60,62,63,66,[75][76][77][78][79]81 Hong Kong, 46 and the Taiwan region 42,43,50,55,68,70,71,74,80 ), Japan, 38,48,51,54,58,61,64,82 Korea, 38,44,45,47,49,52,53,59,64,65,67,72,73 Malaysia, 44,47,49,52,53,58,67 Thai...…”

“…28,29 Despite being available in Asia for over 10 years, LAI antipsychotics have low prescription rate and patient attitudes towards LAI remain important barriers to their use. 30 While global or other population studies have investigated LAI for the maintenance treatment of schizophrenia, 31,32 there has been a significant gap in systematic investigation or summary of published studies on its impact on Asian populations. [33][34][35] Thus, it is essential to evaluate the overall efficacy/ effectiveness, safety, treatment adherence, healthcare resource utilization (HCRU), and patient attitude towards LAIs specifically in this population.…”