Quality of life and its association with duration of illness, number of rehospitalizations, sociodemographic characteristics and the presence of somatic comorbidities among patients with schizophrenia

Objectives. to evaluate the quality of life in patients with schizophrenia using self-assessment
quality of life questionnaires depending on the duration of the disease, the number of rehospitalizations,
sociodemographic characteristics and somatic comorbidities.
Materials and Methods. a hospital based, cross-sectional study was performed among all patients with
schizophrenia who agreed to participate, in period 01.07.2022.-16.11.2022. Socio-demographic and clinical
data, shortened version of the World Health Organization’s self-assessment quality of life questionnaire
[WHOQOL-BREF] (consisting of 26 questions, including 4 domains (D): D1-physical health, D2-
psychological, D3-social and D4-environmental factors) and visual analogue scale were used in this study.
Results. 60 patients with diagnosed schizophrenia participated in the study (50% women) within average
age 43.35years [SD14.615]. The somatic comorbidities had 26.67% [n = 16] participants. The average
number of hospitalizations due to schizophrenia were 13.13 times[SD14.815]. 6.7% of participants rated
quality of life as very good, 26.7% as good, 51.7% as neither poor nor good, 13.3% as poor, 1.7% as very
poor. Non-parametric tests showed a positive relationship between somatic illness and higher WHOQOLBREF
in D1[p = 0.034] and D3[p = 0.048], there was no significant influence of confounding factors
-gender, education, marital status, employment, place of residence, disability, substance abuse. Spearman’s
correlation did not reveal a relationship between the number of rehospitalizations and WHOQOL-BREF.
Statistically significant correlation was found between the duration of the disease and the WHOQOLBREF
D1 0.251[p = 0.027]. Statistically significant correlation was found between D4 and income level
0.286[p = 0.013] and income level and visual analogue scale 0.302[p = 0.009].
Conclusions. Patients with lower income levels have lower quality of life. Self-assessments in physical
health and social relationship were higher in patients with somatic comorbidities. Patients with longer
duration of schizophrenia have better physical health self-assessments. This data could be explained with
personality changes and decreased critical attitude in assessment of functioning level, in patients with
schizophrenia. Further investigation is required.