2574 – Relationship of family caregiver burden with quality of care and psychopathology in a sample of arab subjects with schizophrenia

Abstract

Although the family burden remains one of the most important consequences of schizophrenia, no reports have addressed this important issue in the Arab world. Determine relationship of family burden with the caregiver’s/patient’s socio-demographics, clinical features and the indices of quality of care. Consecutive family caregivers of outpatients with schizophrenia were interviewed with the Involvement Evaluation Questionnaire (IEQ-EU). Patients were interviewed with measures of needs for care, service satisfaction, quality of life and psychopathology. Amongst the 121 caregivers, the higher burden scores were associated with caregiver lower level of education, patient’s female gender and younger age; patient’s lower subjective QOL and needs for hospital care; and not involving the patient in outdoor activities. Disruptive behavior was the greatest determinant of global ratings of burden. Despite generous national social welfare provisions, results underscore the need for the community-based programs and continued intervention with the families in order to improve the quality of care.