Abstract

PINHO, Lara Guedes de; PEREIRA, Anabela; CHAVES, Cláudia  and  ROCHA, Maria da Luz. Satisfaction with Social Support and Quality of Life in Patients with Schizophrenia. Revista Portuguesa de Enfermagem de Saúde Mental [online]. 2017, n.spe5, pp.33-38. ISSN 1647-2160.  https://doi.org/10.19131/rpesm.0164.

BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia is one of the more devastating mental illnesses. It decreases the quality of life and in most cases there is a lack of social support due to its symptomatology and misunderstanding. Moreover, the social support has a crucial impact on mental diseases, especially in schizophrenia. Consequently, it is important to deeply understand the correlation between schizophrenia and social support. AIM: The aim of this work is to analyse the influence of the social support satisfaction on the quality of life of people with schizophrenia. METHODS: The sample consisted of 282 participants diagnosed with schizophrenia from several charitable institutions of Portugal. The following tools were used: socio-demographic data questionnaire, the Quality of Life Scale (QLS₇PT) and the Social Support Satisfaction Scale ("Escala de Satisfação com o Suporte Social" - ESSS). This is a cross-sectional study and simple linear regressions were performed in order to evaluate the correlation between the variables. RESULTS: There were statistically significant results between QLS₇PT values and social support satisfaction (p<0.001), QLS₇PT values and friendship satisfaction (p<0.001), QLS₇PT values and intimacy lever (p<0.001), and QLS7PT values and social activities (p=0.008). There were no statistically significant results between QLS₇PT and family satisfaction (p=0.294). CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that the higher the satisfaction with social support, the higher the quality of life becomes. Thus, it is crucial to implement mental health, e.g., with nursing interventions, that promote interpersonal relationships not only within the therapeutic group but within entire community as well.

Keywords : Schizophrenia; Social support; Quality of life.

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