Religion involvement and quality of life in caregivers of patients with ă schizophrenia in Latin-America

The aim of the study was to explore the relationship between religious ă involvement (RI) and quality of life (QoL) in caregivers of patients ă with schizophrenia, while adjusting for key confounding factors such as ă socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. This study was conducted ă in the public mental health services in Bolivia, Peru and Chile. The ă data collected included RI, socio-demographic information, clinical ă characteristic of the patients and caregiver's QoL using the S-CGQoL ă questionnaire. A multivariate analysis using multiple linear regressions ă was performed to determine variables potentially associated with QoL ă levels. Two hundred and fifty-three patients with their caregivers ă participated in the study. Caregivers' RI was not significantly ă associated with overall QoL nor its individual components. The only ă exception was an unexpected modest inverse association between RI and ă one QoL dimension (psychological and physical well-being). In contrast, ă the following caregivers' socio-cultural and economic factors were ă significantly associated with low QoL level of caregivers: being a ă mother, identifying with Aymara ethnicity and having lower family ă income. Among patients, the clinical characteristics of being woman, ă younger, and having lower age of onset and more severe symptoms was ă associated with lower QoL. Our study found that socio-cultural, economic ă and clinical factors were associated with caregivers' QoL.