Quality of Life and Burden of Care among Caregivers of Treatment Adherent and Non- Adherent Patients with Schizophrenia

Background- Schizophrenia is a chronic mental illness with an early onset and severe symptomatology. It negatively affects the lives of patients and requires years of caregiving. Non-adherence is a significant problem in schizophrenia and can result in increased psychiatric hospitalization, decreased quality of life, and increased caregiver burden therefore it must be assessed to provide relevant interventions. This study explores the impact of non-adherence on caregivers’ quality of life and burden of care. Aim- To assess and compare quality of life and burden of care among caregivers of treatment adherent and non-adherent patients with schizophrenia. Material and methods- The study was done at a tertiary care hospital to assess and compare Quality of life and burden of care among caregivers of treatment adherent and non-adherent patients with schizophrenia. The study had a cross-sectional design and involved 30 caregivers each of treatment adherent patients with schizophrenia and treatment non-adherent patients with schizophrenia. The sample size was estimated after reviewing the last year hospital trend of patients with relevant diagnosis. Patients and their caregivers meeting inclusion and exclusion criteria and consenting were included in the study. The data on socio-demographic profile was collected via a proforma, adherence was assessed using Brief adherence rating scale, Quality of life among caregivers was assessed using WHO QOL-BREF and Burden of care was assessed using Burden assessment schedule of SCARF. Results- The overall quality of life gave a mean score of 82.90 with a standard deviation of 12.71 in the treatment adherent group and 75.80 with a standard deviation of 14.03 in the treatment non-adherent group. A p-value of 0.045 depicts statistical significance. The burden score was found to be higher in all the domains among the caregivers of treatment non-adherent patients, except in the domain of patient’s support, where burden score was higher among the caregivers of treatment adherent patients. Conclusion- The study suggests that the caregivers of patients in treatment non-adherent group have overall poorer quality of life as assessed by WHO-QoL-BREF. Also, the burden of care is higher among the caregivers of treatment non-adherent group.