Does the place of treatment influence the quality of life of schizophrenics?

OBJECTIVE

Chronically mentally ill patients in community mental health care report a better quality of life (QOL) than those in long-term hospital care, which suggests that the treatment setting per se influences their QOL.

METHOD

In a region where both treatment settings are of a comparable high standard, we assessed the QOL of 96 schizophrenic patients from these two treatment settings, and the factors which most influenced their QOL.

RESULTS

Community-care patients reported a better QOL than long-term hospital-care patients. However, when other factors influencing QOL were included in a regression analysis, the place of treatment was no longer significant, but rather the social support, the severity of the illness, educational level and certain illness concepts.

CONCLUSION

It is probably not the place per se which influences the QOL, but apart from personal, sociodemographic and illness-related factors, the amount of social support that is provided in different settings.