The Relationship between Quality of Life and Psychosocial Characteristics in Patients with Schizophrenia

Kim, Kyung Jin; Seol, Jee Hwan; Paik, Young Suk; Kim, Jae Hyun

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
This study was to identify the relationship between quality of life and psychosocial characteristics in patients with schizophrenia.
METHODS
The subjects were eighty nine patients with schizophrenia according to DSM-IV. The Korean Quality of Life Scale (K-QLS) and the Korean modified Scale to measure Subjective Well-being under Neuroleptic treatment (KmSWN) were used to assess quality of life. The psychopathology of each patient was assessed by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). The Scale to Assess Unawareness of Mental Disorder (SAUMD) was used for differentiating presence and absence of insight. The Social and Occupational Functioning Assessment Scale (SOFAS), the Scale of Social Support (SSS), and the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale (FACES) were used for assessing psychosocial characteristics. The correlation between the scores of each quality of life scale and other scales was examined, and multiple regression analysis was performed to assess the contribution of the scores of each quality of life scale to other scales.
RESULTS
The K-QLS score was significantly related to the scores of the PANSS, the SAUMD, the social conflict domain of the SSS, and the SOFAS. The KmSWN score was significantly related to the scores of the PANSS, the SOFAS, the social conflict domain of the SSS, and the FACES. In multiple regression analysis, the scores on the PANSS (32.9%), the SAUMD (5.8%), and the FACES (4.0%) were contributed to the score on the K-QLS, and the scores on the social conflict domain of the SSS (17.3%) and the FACES (12.9%) were contributed to the score on the KmSWN.
CONCLUSION
The relation between the K-QLS score and the scores of other scales means that the objective quality of life increases according to decreased the severity of symptom, the high level of insight and the socio-occupational function. And the relation between the KmSWN score and the scores of other scales means that the subjective quality of life increases according to the perceptions to the high level of social support, the low level of social conflict, and the high level of family adaptability and cohesion. The objective quality of life assessed by the K-QLS is affected primarily by the severity of symptoms, and the subjective quality of life assessed by the KmSWN is affected by the subjective perceptions of social conflict, family adaptation and cohesion. These findings suggest that the treatment of symptoms is important in the treatment of schizophrenic patients, but that it is also important to approach to the psychosocial characteristics to increase subjective satisfaction from the quality of life in them