Notably, whenever inquired about its caregiving feel, the top eight factors (regarding regularity) have been confident in the action

23 Juin Notably, whenever inquired about its caregiving feel, the top eight factors (regarding regularity) have been confident in the action

Schizophrenia caregivers: reaction to caregiving

Many caregivers answered you to definitely taking care of the average person try vital that you him or her (59.dos %) and that they wanted to care for the patient (50.3 %). A substantial proportion of caregivers responded that they had been compliment enough to care for individual (47.8 %), perception blessed to look after the in-patient (49.0 %), having sufficient bodily electricity to care for the average person (43.step 3 %), enjoyed taking good care of the average person (42.eight %), which looking after the patient makes them feel a lot better (39.5 %) (discover Fig. 1).

However, a hefty ratio regarding caregivers revealed that the new caregiving feel is actually difficult. Specifically, caregivers revealed that caregiving had disturbed the schedules (thirty six.step 3 %), one to their bodies had become even worse since carrying out caregiving (thirty-six.step 3 %), perception exhausted day long as creating look after the patient (thirty-five.0 %), perhaps not visiting family and friends doing just before (thirty-two.5 %), having difficulty leisurely on account of ongoing interruptions (29.2 %), and achieving to get rid of in the exact middle of works (20.cuatro %).

A substantial proportion from caregivers indicated ineffective service taking good care of the fresh new patient. Particularly, caregivers replied they’d financial difficulties with the latest person’s requires and you may attributes (34.cuatro %), the proper care got place a monetary stress on their loved ones (thirty-five.0 %), that it’s hard to find assistance from their loved ones (35.7 %), that their loved ones remaining her or him by yourself to manage the fresh patient (twenty-eight.0 %), their family “dumped” handling the average person to them (28.0 %), hence their family quit her or him while the creating care and attention (21.0 %).

Discussion

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 Cuckold dating apps 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.