Burden among Caregivers of Patients with Schizophrenia in Thai Nguyen, Vietnam

Abstract

Objective: Schizophrenia, a devastating psychiatric disorder, posesnumerous burdens for patients and their caregivers. This cross-sectionalstudy aimed to examine caregiver burden and its relationships withcaregiver's age, education level, health status, average time per day fortaking care of patients, and perceived severity of illness among caregiversof patients with schizophrenia. Method: Participants were caregivers ofschizophrenia patients recruited from outpatient psychiatric hospital in ThaiNguyen, Vietnam. They were interviewed to complete a set ofquestionnaires. Descriptive statistics, paired-t-test and Pearson productmomentcorrelation coefficient were employed to analyze the data.Results: The majority of caregivers were females (80%), married (90.8%),the patient’ parent (48.4%), with completed compulsory education (51.6).The average time per day for caregivers spent for giving care to thepatients was 2.57 hours (SD = 1.19). The burden was in moderate level.The caregivers’ burden was positively correlated with caregiver’s age, timeper day for care taking, health status, and perceived severity of patient’sillness, but was negatively correlated with their education level. Physicaland mental health conditions and perceived severity of illness of primarycaregivers were the significant factors related to burden among caregivers.Conclusion: Burden on caregivers of schizophrenia patients was inmoderate level and increased with caregiver’s age, time spent for caretaking, health status, and perceived severity of patient’s illness. Thefindings could be used to develop nursing intervention to reduce distress ornegative consequence in caring for persons with schizophrenia in Vietnam.Keywords: burden, caregivers, health status, perceived severity ofpatient’s illness, schizophrenia, Vietnam