Schizophrenia caregivers: response to caregiving
The majority of caregivers answered one to taking care of the patient is actually vital woosa-coupon that you them (59.2 %) and that they wished to look after the patient (fifty.step three %). A hefty proportion out of caregivers responded that they have been suit enough to look after the individual (47.8 %), feeling blessed to look after the individual (forty two.0 %), which have sufficient actual energy to care for the in-patient (43.step three %), preferred taking good care of the patient (42.eight %), and this taking care of the patient makes them feel good (39.5 %) (pick Fig. 1).
Although not, a hefty ratio off caregivers indicated that new caregiving experience are burdensome. Particularly, caregivers revealed that caregiving had disturbed their schedules (36.3 %), that their bodies had become worse while the undertaking caregiving (36.step 3 %), effect worn out day long because the performing look after the patient (thirty five.0 %), maybe not going to family and friends doing just before (thirty-two.5 %), having trouble leisurely due to constant interruptions (29.2 %), and achieving to eliminate in the exact middle of performs (20.cuatro %).
A hefty ratio regarding caregivers indicated ineffective assistance caring for the fresh new patient. Particularly, caregivers responded they’d financial problems with this new person’s requires and characteristics (34.4 %), that the care had place a monetary stress on their family (thirty five.0 %), that it’s difficult to get assistance from their family (35.eight %), one their loved ones remaining her or him alone to address the fresh new patient (twenty-eight.0 %), their loved ones “dumped” handling the in-patient to them (twenty eight.0 %), and that their loved ones abandoned them since the starting care (21.0 %).
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In general, informal schizophrenia caregivers exhibited poorer health-related outcomes than non-caregiver controls. After matching schizophrenia caregivers with non-caregivers with similar demographic and health characteristics, a substantially greater proportion of caregivers reported experiencing the following symptoms and conditions: sleep difficulties, insomnia, pain, headaches, heartburn, anxiety, and depression, all p <0.05. Schizophrenia caregivers also reported lower HRQoL and health utility compared with non-caregiver controls, all p <0.05. Indeed, the mean differences between schizophrenia caregivers and non-caregiver controls were larger than the MID for mental HRQoL and health utility.
Caregivers of schizophrenia patients and caregivers of patients with conditions other than schizophrenia reported similar poor health-related outcomes, although some differences emerged. After matching schizophrenia caregivers with caregivers of patients with conditions other than schizophrenia but with similar demographic and health characteristics, a substantially greater proportion of schizophrenia caregivers reported the following symptoms: sleep difficulties, insomnia, and anxiety, all p <0.05. Moreover, a substantially greater proportion of schizophrenia caregivers reported currently taking prescription medication for depression and a greater level of depression severity. Schizophrenia caregivers exhibited significantly lower mean mental HRQoL and health utility scores compared with caregivers of patients with other conditions, though these differences did not exceed our pre-defined threshold of meaningfully important differences, all p <0.05.
A prior review of published research of schizophrenia caregiver burden found that, overall, this population experiences deteriorated health, with stress problems, anxiety and depression . The current study corroborated these findings, as informal schizophrenia caregivers reported higher levels of these health issues relative to non-caregivers and caregivers of conditions other than schizophrenia. Zendijidjian et al. (2012) found that caregivers of patients with affective disorders scored significantly lower on all SF-36 domains than caregivers of schizophrenia patients . The current study, however, found significant differences on the MCS, but not the PCS when comparing schizophrenia caregivers and caregivers of other conditions. These differences could be due to the broader criteria provided for caregivers of other conditions in the current study. Papastavrou (2012), comparing schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s and cancer caregivers, on the other hand, found that caregivers of cancer patients experienced the highest levels of depression, while Alzheimer’s caregivers experienced the highest levels of overall burden (p <0.001) . Unlike previous studies of schizophrenia caregivers, the current study employed a representative sample of schizophrenia caregivers, directly comparing HRQoL and comorbidities for schizophrenia caregivers with non-caregiver controls, and schizophrenia caregivers with other caregivers. Because of this, making direct comparisons with prior studies is limited. However, a prior study using 2010 and 2011 5EU NHWS reports higher MCS, PCS and health utility scores for cancer caregivers than the current studies schizophrenia caregivers , suggesting potentially poorer HRQoL for schizophrenia caregivers than caregivers of cancer patients. Therefore, overall, given previous literature and the current study results, the health status of schizophrenia caregivers were found to be comparable if not worse than caregivers of other conditions.
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