Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of the burden reported by family caregivers of Patients with schizophrenia.
Methods: This cross sectional study involved face-to-face interviews with family caregivers of patients with schizophrenia. Using convenience sampling, 225 caregivers were selected from Farshchian psychiatry Hospital in Hamadan, Iran from July to September 2012. Measures included patients and caregivers' demographic variables and caregivers' burden using the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI). Data were analyzed by SPSS-18 with Pearson correlation and t-test.
Results: Using the ZBI, we found that 7.6% of the caregivers experienced "no to low" burden, 23.5% "mild to moderate", 41.8% "moderate to severe" and 27.1% "severe" burden. The mean average score of the responses to ZBI was 51.73 (SD: ± 18.23). The level of burden experienced was significantly associated with age, gender, and educational level, relation to care recipient, caregiving duration and duration of schizophrenia illness.
Conclusion: Mental health professionals need to develop more innovative programs for families of schizophrenic patients. Furthermore, as a replacement for supporting the families and easing their burdens, it may be more effective to include them in the health care team by assigning specific tasks and providing the required resources to them to perform such tasks. .
Keywords: Burden; Caregivers; Family; Schizophrenia.