Abstract
BackgroundMental disorders are considered important public health problems not only to people with mental illness but also their caregivers. As is the case in many countries, the deinstitutionalization of mental health services in Saudi Arabia, has meant that informal caregivers are shouldering responsibilities for which they are not usually prepared; therefore, the current study was aimed at assessment of the burden on caregivers of people with mental illness.MethodsThrough a cross-sectional design, a sample of the caregivers of people with mental illness (n = 377) was selected randomly from a psychiatric hospital in Jeddah. An Arabic version of the Involvement Evaluation Questionnaire (IEQ) was used for collection of data. The data were analyzed on the subscale scores and the 27 items in two ways. First, we used the summed scores for the subscales based on the Likert scale (0–4) for univariate and multivariate statistical analyses, as recommended. We also used parametric statistics (t-tests, one-way ANOVA) because the IEQ subscale scores were fairly normally distributed.ResultsMales constituted more than one-half of the participating caregivers (55%), with a mean age of 36.6, SD = 11.4 years. As reported by the caregivers, most of the patients were males (62.7%) with a mean age of 33.8, SD = 13.7 years and a range of 17–90 years old. The total mean IEQ burden score of the caregivers was 38.4, SD = 17.5. “Tension” was significantly prominent among younger caregivers aged ≤30 years. “Worrying” was significantly higher among caregivers living with their spouse and children and those living in families with relatively fewer members (<6 members). “Urging” was significantly higher among caregivers who are living with the patient in the same household and those who had been in close contact with the patient for 28 days in the four weeks prior to the study (13.4, SD = 6.8) p < 0.05. Meanwhile, “Urging” was also significantly higher among caregivers caring for mentally ill females (13.5, SD = 6.6) and those not receiving any kind of professional support (12.8, SD = 6.7). The overall burden and the subscale scores were highest among caregivers caring for a close relative such as a parent (44.1, SD = 17.6), son/daughter (39.1, SD = 12.9), sibling (37.1, SD = 18.6), or spouse (37.1, SD = 18.6) p < 0.05.ConclusionCare for people with mental illness is burdensome for their caregivers, the magnitude of burden is potentially augmented by factors related to the patients and households. These factors should be considered when planning for preparing caregivers to cope with people with mental illness in Saudi Arabia.
Highlights
Mental disorders are considered important public health problems to people with mental illness and their caregivers
Most of the respondents had either a high school education (40.1%) or university qualifications (31.3%), and the majority of them were living in family contexts, as 41.7% were living with spouses with or without children, and 44.1% were living with close family members
The caregivers stated that 16.9% of the family members with mental illness were not receiving any kind of support, while those who had support were receiving it mainly from the psychiatric hospital, either in the outpatient clinic (51%) or as a registered patient in the hospital (48.5%) [Table 2]
Summary
Mental disorders are considered important public health problems to people with mental illness and their caregivers. The burden of caring for people with mental illness include disruption of everyday life routine, stigma and blame, dissatisfaction with family and relatives, financial problems, physical burden, troubles with adherence of the patients to treatment and problems with health services and governmental support [7] It was not until the mid-1950s onwards that the experience of burden of informal family caregivers of family members with mental illness drew researchers’ attention’ [8]. Research conducted in Saudi Arabia has focused primarily focused on the hospital-based epidemiology of mental disorders and health-services research, leaving a large gap in the field of community mental health services [14] For these reasons, the current study was aimed to investigating the consequences of caring for family members with mental illness on informal caregivers.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
