Papastavrou Evridiki, Charalambous Andreas, Tsangari Haritini, Karayiannis George
Department of Nursing, School of Health Sciences, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus.
Scand J Caring Sci. 2010 Dec;24(4):817-23. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-6712.2010.00782.x.
The aim of this study was to examine the burden and emotional well-being experienced by Cypriot families caring for a member suffering from schizophrenia. Psychiatric reforms and the shifting of care from the formal sector to the informal care provided in the community resulted in additional responsibilities and tasks undertaken by the families. There is a substantial body of literature on the profound impacts of caring on family caregivers of individuals suffering from schizophrenia, but little is known about the level of burden and how it correlates with other characteristics.
This is a cross-sectional descriptive study. A total of 113 caregivers were recruited from three regional psychiatric outpatient clinics in Cyprus. They were asked to complete a set of well-validated instruments measuring family burden and a socio-demographic data sheet. Analyses include descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses to identify the predictors of family burden.
The findings support high level of burden among family caregivers. Forty-three percentage of the participants scored above 24/42 in the Family burden scale. Logistic regression identified three independent variables to predict the presence of subjective caregiver burden: Patient's mental condition in the previous 3 months (p = 0.011), patient's gender (p = 0.028) and caregiver's educational level (p = 0.036).
The findings increase our understanding about the variables influencing burden and emotional well-being in schizophrenia caring. They have great clinical importance in health care because they help health professionals to plan intervention strategies focusing on each domain of burden.
本研究旨在调查塞浦路斯照顾精神分裂症患者的家庭所承受的负担以及其情绪健康状况。精神病学改革以及护理从正规部门向社区提供的非正规护理的转变，导致家庭承担了额外的责任和任务。有大量文献论述了照顾对精神分裂症患者家庭照顾者的深远影响，但对于负担程度及其与其他特征的相关性却知之甚少。
这是一项横断面描述性研究。从塞浦路斯的三个地区精神科门诊招募了总共113名照顾者。要求他们完成一套经过充分验证的衡量家庭负担的工具以及一份社会人口数据表。分析包括描述性统计和逻辑回归分析，以确定家庭负担的预测因素。
研究结果表明家庭照顾者负担水平较高。43%的参与者在家庭负担量表上的得分高于24/42。逻辑回归确定了三个独立变量来预测主观照顾者负担的存在：患者前3个月的精神状况（p = 0.011）、患者性别（p = 0.028）和照顾者的教育水平（p = 0.036）。
这些发现增进了我们对影响精神分裂症护理中负担和情绪健康的变量的理解。它们在医疗保健中具有重要的临床意义，因为它们有助于卫生专业人员制定针对负担各个领域的干预策略。
