Quality of life of caregivers of patients diagnosed with severe mental illness at the national referral hospitals in Uganda

BMC Psychiatry

Research Article

Connie Olwit¹  Mariam Namutebi¹  Cynthia Ndikuno²  David Mukunya³  Job Kuteesa⁴ 

[1] Department of Nursing, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda;Department of Nursing, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda;Department of Nursing, College of Health Sciences, Makarere University, P.O BOX 7072, Mulago Hill road, Kampala, Uganda;Department of Pediatrics, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda;Department of Surgery, College of Health sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda;

关键词: Caregivers;    Quality of life;    Severe mental illness;    WHOQOL-BREF;    Uganda;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12888-016-1084-2

 received in 2016-06-06, accepted in 2016-10-21,  发布年份 2016

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundWorldwide, 450 million people suffer from mental and behavioral disorders. In Uganda, it is estimated that 35% of the population that is 9,574,915 people suffer from some form of mental illness. Caregivers are increasingly bearing the responsibility of taking care of these patients, which can influence their QoL due to the social and economic costs they incur. The aim of the study was to assess the QoL of caregivers for patients diagnosed with severe mental illness attending the National Referral Hospitals in Uganda.MethodThis was a cross sectional study. A pretested tool with two parts; a sociodemographic part and a validated WHOQOL-BREF, was used to collect data from 300 consecutive eligible participants. SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) Version 22 and Stata Version 14 were used in data entry and analysis.ResultsOf the 300 participants, 57.3% of the caregivers had a poor QoL. The statistically significant factors associated with QoL were environment (Adjusted coefficient = 0.016, 95% CI = 0.009–0.023), caregiver satisfaction with their health (Adjusted coefficient = 0.405, 95% CI = 0.33–0.487), psychological wellbeing (Adjusted coefficient = 0.007, 95% CI = 0.0002–0.013), and education level (Adjusted coefficient = 0.148, 95% CI = 0.072–0.225).ConclusionQoL of caregivers for patients diagnosed with mental illness is generally poor due to the added responsibilities and occupation of their time, energy and attention. This additional responsibility results in high levels of stress and caregivers may fail to have appropriate coping mechanisms. Interventions like support groups or counseling should be put in place to aid caregivers in their role and therefore improve QoL. This study adds to the international database of QoL literature and calls for more attention to be placed on caregivers in supporting their role and improving their QoL so as to lead to better patient outcomes among those diagnosed with mental illness.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2016