Functional level of Schizophrenic patients and perception of burden of caregiving to schizophrenic patients attending the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Background Patients with schizophrenia require long-term support and care which may become burdensome to their caregivers, Aim: the study aims at investigating the functional level of Schizophrenic patients and perception of burden of caregivers attending the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital. Method: The study adopted a cross-sectional descriptive design. A total of 160 caregivers. The instrument of data collection was a validated and standardized developed questionnaire, adapted and modified from three instruments. Data collected were analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences software (SPSS) version 21.0. data presented in frequency tables, percentages, bar charts, mean and standard deviation.  Results: Findings revealed that the functional level (FL) of schizophrenic patients under study was low. The level of caregivers’ perceived burden of care giving to schizophrenic patients was severe (64.30%). Highest form of perceived burden was the social burden with mean score of 2.1 (SD = 0.91). There is positive inverse relationship between caregivers’ perceived burden and the desire to continue care giving (Beta -0.312). The R-square (r2) of 0.097 showed roughly a contribution of 9.7%. Conclusion: Caregivers of schizophrenic patients perform a health care role which makes most of them to experience severe social, psychological, financial and physical burden.