Factors Affecting the Empowerment Experienced by Outpatients with Schizophrenia / 대한정신분열병학회지

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.