Objective: To study caregivers' caring behaviors and factors related to caregivers' caring behaviors for chronic schizophrenic patients at home.
Materials and Methods: Two hundred and fifty caregivers of chronic schizophrenic patients were selected by simple random sampling technique at the out-patient department of Songkhla Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Songkhla, Thailand. Data were collected using the caregivers' caring behaviors for chronic schizophrenic patients at home questionaire and analyzed using basic statistics and stepwise multiple regression.
Results: The caregivers' caring behaviors for chronic schizophrenic patients score was at a moderate level. The highest caring behavior score was the psychosocial care and the lowest was the spiritual care. In each caring activity, the highest frequent practice was "giving love to the patient according to his/her family social status" and the lowest frequent practice was "caring for patients' elimination". Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that twenty-five percent of the variance of caring behaviors was accounted for by four factors: knowledge of mental illness and caring, relations with the patient, perception of the patients' self-care abilities and sex.
Conclusion: The caregivers are more concerned with psychosocial than other aspects care for their schizophrenic patients. Their caring behaviors depend on the caregivers' knowledge of mental illness and caring, relations with the patient, the patients' self-care abilities and the caregivers' sex.