Research On Quality Of Life Of Psychiatric Inpatients Family Members

BackgroundIn recent years,with the development of society and economy,the tempo of life is becoming faster and living and work pressure is increasing,resulting in the increase of number of patients with mental illness.Mental health problem has become a severe public health issue.In China,the number of psychiatric patient is gradually increasing and the demand for mental health service is growing.However,the funding of mental health service is inadequate;mental health service system is imperfect;mental health resources are severely insufficient;the distribution of mental health resources is quite uneven,making a lot of mental disorder patients do not get systematic treatment.Patients’family members play a significant role in looking after the psychiatric patients and most of the psychiatric patients are taken care by their family members,bringing about heavy financial burden and care burden and a wide range of effects on the QoL of patients’ family members.Therefor,research on QoL of psychiatric patients’ family members is of great importance.ObjectiveOn the basis of reading relevant materials,we conducted a questionnaire survey on psychiatric inpatients’ family members.The overall objective of this study is to explore the QoL and social support of psychiatric inpatients’ family members,to analyze the influencing factors of QoL of the psychiatric inpatients’ family members,and to put forward relevant policy recommendations according to the research results.Specific objectives include:to understand the status of QoL and social support of different demographic psychiatric inpatients’family members and to analyze the influencing factors of QoL of the psychiatric inpatients’ family members.Finally,we will make some policy recommendations and useful measures for improving the QoL of the psychiatric inpatients’family members.MethodsData comes from Mental Health Center of Shandong Province,China.This study used questionnaire to survey the psychiatric inpatients’ family members of Mental Health Center of Shandong Province from October 2014 to January 2015.This study included 230 psychiatric inpatients’ family members.Data analysis methods include: descriptive statistics,univariate analysis and multiple stepwise regression analysis.Results(1) Evaluation of scale reliability and validity.SF-36 scale for assessing the QoL of the psychiatric inpatients’ family members shows good reliability and validity.Reliability analysis shows that the Cronbach α coefficient of the entire SF-36 scale is 0.847 and the Cronbach a coefficient of the eight dimensions of QoL is over 0.7 except the dimension of social function 0.543.The coefficient of the split-half reliability of SF-36 scale is 0.792.Construct validity analysis shows that,except emotional function,other dimensions are consistent with the theoretical assumptions.(2) Status of QoL and social support of psychiatric inpatients’ family membersThe QoL of psychiatric inpatients’ family members is poor and the score of each dimension is lower than the national norm.The QoL of different population groups is different.Family members of women,old in age;primary caregivers,living with the patients,suffering from illness,patients with comorbidity,had poorer quality of life.The worse the patients’ disease condition,the lower the QoL of the psychiatric inpatients’ family members;the worse the patients’ compliance with treatment,the lower the QoL;the weaker the affordability of health care expenses,the lower the QoL;the higher the awareness of mental health,the higher the QoL;the higher the awareness of mental health policy of the family members,the higher the QoL.Family members in rural-urban continuum had poorer QoL than that of rural and urban;the QoL of psychiatric inpatients’ mother is lower than other family members.The social support of the psychiatric inpatients’ family members is slightly higher than the national norm.(3) Analysis of the influencing factors of psychiatric inpatients’ family membersMultiple stepwise regression analysis shows that many aspects of QoL of the psychiatric inpatients’ family members are affected and the QoL of the psychiatric inpatients’ family members is poor and is significantly lower than the national norm.The main influencing factors of QoL of the psychiatric inpatients’ family members include age,place of residence,marital status,occupation,coordination care time,monthly income.the relationship with the patient,sick or not, patient’s marital status,type of disease,status of the patients’ illness,the disease’s frequency of onset,duration of patients’ illness,patients’ insurance type,patients number of admissions due to this disease yesteryear;medical expenses tolerance and social support.ConclusionsSF-36 scale for assessing the QoL of the psychiatric inpatients’ family members shows good reliability and validity.Many aspects of QoL of the patients’family members are affected and the QoL of the patients’ family members is poor and is significantly lower than the national norm.Age,place of residence,marital status,occupation,coordination care time,monthly income,the relationship with the patient,sick or not, patient’s marital status,type of disease,status of the patients’ illness,the disease’s frequency of onset,duration of patients’ illness,patients’insurance type,patients number of admissions due to this disease yesteryear;medical expenses tolerance and social support are the influencing factors of the QoL of the psychiatric inpatients’ family members.The social support of the psychiatric inpatients’family members is slightly higher than the national norm.