%0 Journal Article
%T Quality of life of caregivers with relatives suffering from mental illness in Hong Kong: roles of caregiver characteristics, caregiving burdens, and satisfaction with psychiatric services
%A Daniel Wong
%A Angus Lam
%A Sau Chan
%A Shuk Chan
%J Health and Quality of Life Outcomes
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1477-7525-10-15
%X 276 caregivers with relatives attending community psychiatric facilities in Hong Kong were invited to fill out a questionnaire. One sample t-tests were conducted to compare the results of this study with that of other Chinese populations in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China. A hierarchical regression analysis was performed to examine the relative influence of different factors on caregivers' QoL.Our sample of caregivers had significantly lower QoL scores than other Chinese populations. Results also suggest that Chinese caregivers who had chronic illness, younger in age, a lower education level, experienced more difficulties in handling negative symptoms, and were more dissatisfied with mental health services had poorer quality of life. Indeed, caregiver characteristics displayed a much stronger association with caregivers' QoL than did caregiving burdens and satisfaction with psychiatric services.This study supports the strong association of caregiver characteristics and the QoL of caregivers and establishes the nature of the relationship between satisfaction with mental health services and caregiver QoL. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.Caring for a family member with mental illness can be burdensome. Caregivers may experience financial burdens, difficulty handling disruptive behavior and fluctuating emotions that cannot be controlled, a lack of time for personal enjoyment and social engagement, difficulty handling the lack of motivation found in the mentally ill family member, and financial difficulties [1,2]. Evidence of family burdens is also found among caregivers with different ethnic backgrounds such as Chileans [3], Swedes [4], Germans [5], Hong Kong Chinese [6,7], and mainland Chinese [8]. The impact of caring burdens on the psychological wellbeing of caregivers has also been well documented, the results generally suggesting that caregivers suffer from poor psychological health and that some of them may even develop mental ill
%K Quality of Life
%K Caregivers characteristics
%K Caregiving Burden
%K Satisfaction with psychiatric services
%K Hong Kong
%U http://www.hqlo.com/content/10/1/15