The Association of Social Support and Symptomatic Remission among Community-Dwelling Schizophrenia Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study

Chi-Hsuan Fan, Shih-Chieh Hsu, Fei-Hsiu Hsiao, Chia-Ming Chang, Chia-Yih Liu, Yu-Ming Lai and Yu-Ting Chen
Additional contact information
Chi-Hsuan Fan: Department of Nursing, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taoyuan City 333, Taiwan
Shih-Chieh Hsu: Department of Psychiatry, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taoyuan City 333, Taiwan
Fei-Hsiu Hsiao: School of Nursing, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei City 100, Taiwan
Chia-Ming Chang: Department of Psychiatry, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taoyuan City 333, Taiwan
Chia-Yih Liu: Department of Psychiatry, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taoyuan City 333, Taiwan
Yu-Ming Lai: School of Nursing, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan City 333, Taiwan
Yu-Ting Chen: Department of Psychiatry, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taoyuan City 333, Taiwan

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 8, 1-14

Abstract: Schizophrenia is a mental disease that often leads to chronicity. Social support could reduce the severity of psychotic symptoms; therefore, its influence on remission should be examined. This study investigated the remission rates in community-dwelling schizophrenia patients and examined the association between social support and remission status. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 129 schizophrenia patients in Taiwan. Remission rates were evaluated, and the level of social support, clinical characteristics, sociodemographic variables, and healthy lifestyle status were compared between the remission and nonremission groups. The association between social support and remission was analyzed after adjusting for confounding factors. The mean illness duration is 12.9 years. More than 95% of the participants lived with their families, 63% were unemployed, and 43% achieved remission. Higher social support was observed in the remission group, and a significant correlation was observed between family domain of social support and remission status. Family support was a protective factor of symptomatic remission in community-dwelling schizophrenia patients in Taiwan. The results reflect the effects of a family-centered culture on patients during illness. Consequently, reinforcing family relationships and the capacity of families to manage the symptoms of patients and providing support to families are recommended.

Keywords: schizophrenia; symptomatic remission; social support; family support; community; Taiwan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/8/3977/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/8/3977/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:8:p:3977-:d:533303

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().