Expressed emotion and associated factors among caregivers of persons with schizophrenia attending psychiatry clinic out patient departement at jimma university medical center, south west Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Expressed emotion (EE) measures the emotion of the caregivers of persons with schizophrinia and is predictive of symptom levels in a range of medical and psychiatric conditions. As to the knowledge of the researcher, there is limited data on expressed emotion among caregivers of patient with schizophrenia in Africa and no available data in Ethiopia. Therefore, it is worth to assess expressed emotion and associated factors among caregivers of patient with schizophrenia in Ethiopia. Objective: To assess the status of expressed emotions and associated factors among caregivers of patient with schizophrenia attending psychiatry clinic at outpatient department of Jimma university medical center, South west, Ethiopia, in 2019. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted using consecutive sampling technique among 422 respondents. Data was collecte Caregivers of people with schizophrinia using structured interviewer administrated questionnaires (Family Questioners) which assess the level of expressed emotion. Data were entered into Epidata 4.4 and exported to Statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 25 for the analysis. Descripitive statistics was used to summerize data, bivariable logistic regression was done to identify candidate variables for multivariable logistic regressions and the association between expressed emotion and predictor variables was identified by using multiple logistic regression analysis. Results: A total of 422 caregivers of people with schizophrenia were included in the study giving a reponse rate of 100% and the prevalence of high expressed emotion was 43.6 %( n=184). Caregiving duration of 6-8 years [AOR=2.44, (1.308, 4.549), perceived moderate symptom severity [AOR= 1.96,(1.062, 3.632),no report of physical/medical illness in caregivers [AOR=2.27 (1.174,4.406), participants from a household with monthly income >2000 ETB [AOR=2.1 (1.142,3.873)] and perceived sever subjective burden[AOR=3.5,(1.765,7.095)] were significantly associated with high expressed emotion. Conclusions and recommendations: the current study showed that there is high HEE prevalence as compared with other studies. Psychotherapy intervention need be given to minimize high expressed emotion among caregivers of patient with schizopherinia