Design: Cross-sectional, descriptive and correlational design.

Sample, Settings and Years: Purposive sampling of 111 subjects was from the day care and home care programs of one mental hospital from February to August 2003.

Variables: Information on the variables was obtained from the Quality of Life Scale for Psychiatric Patients (including subjective and objective QOL), Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS) and Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ).

Methods: Subjects completed the instruments during one depth-interview. Descriptive and Pearson correlations were used to examine the relationships among all variables.

Findings: Most subjects were diagnosed of paranoid type (84.3%) and belonged to the home care program (55.8 %). The psychopathological symptoms demonstrated significantly inverse relationships with objective quality of life (g =- .347 for negative symptoms; g =- .415 for positive symptoms; g =- .382 for general psychopathology). No statistically significant relationships among psychopathological symptoms and subjective QOL were determined. The social support was moderately related to objective QOL (g = .305 for staff support; g = .384 for family support) and subjective QOL (g = .318 for staff support; g = .445 for family support).

Conclusion: Controlling psychopathological symptoms and providing an appropriate milieu therapy can promote the overall quality of life for schizophrenic patients of rehabilitation programs. Further, psychosocial education for caregivers can enhance the overall quality of life for schizophrenic patients of rehabilitation programs.

Implications: The findings enable better understanding of the overall QOL for more effective intervention and rehabilitation.

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Back to 15th International Nursing Research Congress
Sigma Theta Tau International
July 22-24, 2004