Comparison of Quality of Life of Care Giver of Chronic Psychiatric and Chronic Medical Patients
Abstract
Chronically ill patients need assistance or supervision in their daily activities often placing a major burden on caregivers, placing them at a great risk of mental and physical problems and an impaired quality of life. An observational analytical study conducted in year 2013 in SMS Medical College, Jaipur aiming to compare the quality of life (QOL) of caregivers of patients with chronic psychiatric disorders with that of chronic medical illnesses. WHO-QOL BREF was used to assess quality of life in both the groups. It was observed that quality of life of caregivers of chronic psychiatric illness were significantly (p<0.05)poorer than quality of life of caregivers of chronic medical illness and that too more in Psychosocial domain followed by social, environmental and physical domain.
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Introduction
Chronic illnesses, exert a burden on family members for their effect on the patient’s symptoms, mood, and need for emotional and physical support1,2,3,4 . Chronically ill patients need assistance or supervision in their daily activities often placing a major burden on caregivers, placing them at a great risk of mental and physical problems and an impaired quality of life. In developing countries like India, the trend of deinstitutionalization places considerable burden for family caregivers who takes the sole responsibility of taking care of chronically ill patients5 . In the health field, quality of life (QoL) is one of the most important components associated with delivering an integral service to an ill person and their family, emphasizing the subjective perspective held by the patient and the family. QoL of caregivers is affected in many ways like: through their direct and indirect effects6 . In India there is paucity of studies in this field whereas it has been reported extensively in studies done abroad. So this study was aimed to compare the quality of life (QOL) of caregivers of patients with chronic psychiatric disorders with that of chronic medical illnesses in Indian setting.
Conclusion
In comparable groups of care givers of chronic psychiatric group was having significantly lower quality of life than the care givers of chronic medical illness group in all the four domains but it was found maximum sufferings in psychological domain followed by social, environmental and physical domain of Qol.