Background: This study assessed the effect of expressed emotion (EE) among caregivers of schizophrenia patients on their care burden and the illness rehospitalization rate.
Subjects and methods: A total of 64 schizophrenia patients hospitalized for the first time and their key caregivers were recruited. The Chinese version of the Camberwell Family Interview (CFI-CV) was used to evaluate the EE of the key caregivers. A family burden questionnaire was used to evaluate the care burden. The patients' rehospitalization rate and medication compliance were evaluated by the self-designated criteria. The data collection was carried out at the first meeting in the hospital, at 6 months and 12 months after hospital discharge by using the same instruments.
Results: The subjective stress burden and subjective demand burden scores were higher in caregivers before and after discharge with statistical difference between the various observation time points (P<0.05). Significant differences were observed in the rehospitalization rate between patients with high medication adherence and low medication adherence at 12 months (P<0.01) and between patients with high expressed emotion (HEE) and low expressed emotion (LEE; P<0.05). The rehospitalization rate in patients with HEE caregivers was higher than that in those with LEE caregivers. The subjective stress burden scores were statistically significant between HEE and LEE caregivers (P<0.05).
Conclusion: HEE is a predictor of rehospitalization rate in schizophrenic patients. The burdens of care scores are high in caregivers of schizophrenic patients. The caregivers with HEE have a high score in burden of care compared with those with LEE.
Keywords: care burden; caregivers; expressed emotion; rehospitalization rate; schizophrenia.