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

The aim of the study was to explore the relationship between religion ă involvement (RI) and quality of life (QoL) in patients with ă schizophrenia from three countries in Latin America, while considering ă key confounding factors such as socio-demographic and clinical ă characteristics. ă This cross-sectional study was conducted in the public mental health ă services in La Paz, Bolivia; Arica, Chile; and Tacna, Peru. The data ă collected included RI, socio-demographic information, clinical ă characteristics, type of treatment and QoL using the S-QoL 18 ă questionnaire. A multivariate analysis using multiple linear regressions ă was performed to determine variables associated with QoL levels. ă Two hundred and fifty-three patients with schizophrenia were enrolled in ă our study. Significant positive associations were found between RI and ă QoL (the S-QoL 18 index: beta = 0.13; p = 0.048; autonomy dimension: ă beta = 0.15; p = 0.027). Other socio-cultural and economic factors were ă also associated with low QoL level: being a woman, older patient, low ă education level and being Aymara. Severity of the psychotic symptoms was ă associated to a lower QoL for all the dimension (beta from 0.15 to ă 0.31), except for the resilience. ă Our study found that socio-cultural and economic factors including RI ă were associated with QoL in patients with schizophrenia in Latin ă America, suggesting that these factors may influence positively health ă outcome. However, these relationships were moderate in strength, ă especially in comparison to symptoms severity which remained the most ă important features associated with QoL.