Measuring the Quality of Life in Forensic Psychiatric Hospitals

Abstract

Background: In Germany, a large proportion of mentally ill offenders spends many years in a forensic psychiatric hospital. To ensure that the highly restrictive living conditions in these closed institutions meet patient needs, research must assess and analyze patient quality of life. For this purpose, we adapted the Measuring the Quality of Prison Life questionnaire to measure the quality of life in forensic psychiatric hospitals from the patient perspective. This study aimed to assess the reliability (internal consistency) and construct validity of the adapted questionnaire.Methods: To evaluate the questionnaire, a one-time survey was carried out at 13 forensic psychiatric hospitals in Germany. Item characteristics and internal consistency of the scale and subscales were calculated and the factor structure was tested using confirmatory factor analysis. To test of responsiveness we compared the mean quality of life between the 13 hospitals and further investigated whether the patients' evaluation of quality of life is depending on age and duration of accommodation.Results: The analysis of the psychometric properties revealed very good item characteristics and very good to excellent internal reliability. Construct validity was demonstrated. Patient's quality of life was significantly associated with age and duration of accommodation.Discussion: The adapted Measuring the Quality of Prison Life questionnaire is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring quality of life in forensic psychiatric hospitals and can be used in the future to compare hospitals and identify the strengths and weaknesses of each.

Eine hohe Lebensqualität reduziert depressive Symptome von Maßregelvollzugspatientinnen und -patienten

“…Die Lebensqualität wurde durch eine von Büsselmann et al. ( 2021 ) aus dem Englischen übersetzte und an die Gegebenheiten des Maßregelvollzugs adaptierte Version des MQPL (Liebling et al. 2011 ) erfasst.…”

The curse of experiencing and committing violence as a criminal recidivism predictor: A comparison between female forensic psychiatric patients with severe mental disorders and substance use disorder

“…For a detailed description of the legal framework, the authors recommend to read the work of Müller-Isberner et al [1]. Consequently, German forensic psychiatric patient populations comprise of both female and male individuals with a diagnosis of either a mental illness predominantly of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs; 41%), SUDs, or a combination of both [1,3]. Both SSDs as well as SUDs are linked to heightened criminally conspicuous behavior such as violence and aggression [4][5][6].…”