Factors Affecting the Empowerment Experienced by Outpatients with Schizophrenia. |
Jun Gee Kim, Jee Young Ahn, Chul Kwon Kim |
1Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, Dong-A University, Busan, Korea. kimck@dau.ac.kr 2Igonggam Psychiatric Clinic, Busan, Korea. |
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Abstract |
OBJECTIVES To identify various factors that might affect the empowerment of outpatients with schizophrenia. METHODS Of patients who had been receiving outpatient treatments at the department of psychiatry in Dong-A university hospital, 116 patients with a DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of stable schizophrenia were enrolled in this study. The empowerment, psychiatric symptoms, social functions, insight, family attitude, social support and self-esteem were assessed through an interview or self-report measures. Overall, multiple regression analyses were performed in consideration of 11 factors (age, sex, level of education, age of onset, frequency of hospitalization, symptoms, social functions, insight, family attitude, social support, self-esteem) as explanatory variables for the empowerment. RESULTS Multiple regression analyses using a backward elimination revealed that the following four factors were found to be significant explanatory variables for the empowerment: age of onset, social functions, family attitude and self-esteem. A coefficient of determination for these four explanatory variables was 0.65. CONCLUSION In conclusion, the results showed that four factors, such as age of onset, social functions, family attitude and self-esteem, were found to be significant explanatory variables for the empowerment of outpatients with schizophrenia. Since these four variables accounted for 65% of total empowerment, however, further studies in a larger group of patients are warranted to identify other potential factors for the empowerment. |
Key Words:
Schizophrenia · Empowerment · Social functions · Family attitude · Self-esteem |
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