Extent and pattern of burden of care and its associated factors among Eritrean families of persons living with schizophrenia: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

PurposeTo assess the caregiving burden and its associated factors among Eritrean families of persons living with schizophrenia.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted for 146 caregivers with their respective known patients with schizophrenia of Saint Mary's Neuropsychiatric National Referral Hospital (SMNNRH). Data were collected using Pai and Kapur's Family Burden Interview Schedule (FBIS), the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and self-prepared sociodemographic sheet. Data were analysed using SPSS V.21. Descriptive statistics, independent t-tests, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple regression analysis was employed to analyse the data.ResultsIn this study, 84 (57.5%) were males and 62 (42.5%) were females. The mean age was 33.96+10.37 (median=31) for the patients and 46.76+13.96 (median=48) for the caregivers. Total mean objective score was 29.47+6.67. Family caregivers who were single (F=3.224, p<0.005, effect size (ES)=0.064), had educational level at elementary (F=5.647 p=0.001, ES=0.11), had low monthly income (t=7.727, p<0.001, ES=0.01) and were dissatisfied with family support (t=2.889, p<0.01, ES=0.01) experienced greater burden relative to the counterparts. Caregiver's age (β=0.156; p<0.05), duration of caregiving (β=0.131; p<0.05), monthly household family income (β=−0.298; p<0.001), history of self-injury (β=0.151; p=0.05), positive scale (β=0.344; p<0.001), negative scale (β=0.278; p<0.001) and general psychopathological scale (β=0.146; p<0.01) emerged as significant predictors of objective burden.ConclusionsFamily caregivers of a person living with schizophrenia experience a significant burden of care. Our findings highlight that there is a need of strengthening social and psychological support to reduce the caregiving burden.

Burden among caregivers of people with mental illness at Jimma University Medical Center, Southwest Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

“…This study also found out that the higher the caregivers’ income, the lower the caregiver burden. This was in agreement with previous studies [11, 31]. As previous studies stated that most of the patients were economically dependent on a family member [32] and higher degree of burden on the caregivers were associated with low income [33].…”

“…Our study found out that caregiving burden increases as age of the caregiver increases. This finding is in accordance with previous studies that suggested older caregivers experience higher levels of caregiving burden compared to their younger counterparts [11, 29, 30]. Older caregiver cannot deliver care accordingly and are worried about who will take over their caregiving roles when they are no longer alive [30].…”

“…Older caregiver cannot deliver care accordingly and are worried about who will take over their caregiving roles when they are no longer alive [30]. Moreover, the young caregivers tend to have a better educational achievement, which possibly would contribute to a better socio-economic status or understanding of the condition [11]. They are also most likely to spend less time with mentally ill family members than their older counter parts [9].…”

“…Fujino and Okamura found out that patients’ severity of illness associated with caregiver burden [48]. Possibly this might be related to ‘that more severely ill patients became functionally impaired, thereby depend heavily on their caregivers [11] and disturbance in patient’s behavior and longtime illness which result in limiting time, energy, and attention of caregiver [48].…”

The Study of Burden of Family Caregivers of Patients Living with Psychiatric Disorders in Remote Area of Nepal

“…These findings are comparable with different study worldwide. 16,20,24,25 The study has some limitations. The participants were from specific geographical region so generalization of the result to other areas is difficult.…”