Quality of life of stabilized outpatients’ families with mental health difficulties in the eastern region of Morocco

Abstract EN

Objectives: Being a caregiver for a person experiencing psychiatric illness, mental health difficulites or intellectual disability can have an adverse impact on families, including a reduced quality of life.

The current study assessed the quality of life of stabilized outpatients’ families and examined associated factors.

Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted among outpatients’ families at the psychiatric hospital at Oujda in Morocco.

In addition to sociodemographic characteristics for both groups, therapeutic compliance, insight, and patient autonomy was assessed via three scales: Medication Adherence Report Scale (MARS-5), Birchwood Insight Scale (BIS), and Social Autonomy Scale (SAS).

The Medical Outcome Short Form (SF-36) assessed the quality of life of these families.

Results: The mean age of caregivers was 53.34 years; 65.67% were women and 46.7% of relatives were the patients' parents.

In terms of patient characteristics, 61.33% were single and 84% were unemployed; 55.3% had a diagnosis of schizophrenia with 80.5% reporting good insight.

Compliance was low (40.7% of patients) with 98 patients indicating high levels of autonomy.

Low quality of life was associated with being a young female caregiver caring for someone with limited autonomy and/or poor insight into their difficulties.

Conclusion: Psychiatric disorders, mental health conditions and intellectual disability cause significant psychological distress for families.

Supporting caregivers is essential to improving patient functioning and wellbeing as well as family quality of life