The Development of the Health Belief Enhancement Program on Health Belief Perception and Positive Aspects of Caregiving among Caregivers of Patients with Schizophrenia

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a chronic psychiatric disease with severe mental illness and thus is a major public health problem in the country. The caregivers feel the burden of caring for schizophrenic patients, feel bored, and discouraged. At the same time, some families can provide care with understanding and acceptance. The purposes of this research and development were: 1) to develop the health belief enhancement program with the positive aspects of caregiving, 2) to compare the health belief perception in schizophrenia and positive aspects of caregiving before and after receiving the program, and at one-month follow-up periods. The study is composed of 3 phases; 1) the qualitative research and literature reviewed, 2) developing and creating a prototype program, and 3) testing the effectiveness of the program developed. These were covered 5 steps including 1) a qualitative study and literature review, 2) creating the draft program, 3) developing the prototype program, 4) testing the effect of the program in small sample size and improvement, 5) testing the effectiveness of the program in the large sample size which two group pre-test post-test quasi-experimental research. Subjects were 40 caregivers of schizophrenic patients selected by purposive sampling and assigned into the experimental and the control groups with 20 subjects in each group. The instruments were: 1) the health belief perception in schizophrenia inventory, and 2) the positive aspects of caregiving inventory. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient reliability was .93 and .88, respectively, and 3) the health belief enhancement program with the positive aspects of caregiving developed by the researcher which IOC .89. The program implemented 2 sessions once a week, for 4 weeks. The qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis. The quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, MANOVA, and repeated measurement ANOVA. The program developed based on the health belief model and the positive aspects of the caregiving concept consisted of 3 steps 8 sessions. The study of the effectiveness of the program revealed that the mean score of the health belief perception in schizophrenia and the positive aspects of caregiving in the experimental group after receiving the program and at one-month follow-up periods were significantly higher than that before, at .001, and the mean score of the health belief perception in schizophrenia and the positive aspects of caregiving after receiving the program and at one month follow-up periods of the experimental group were significantly higher than that of the control group at .001. These findings suggested that the program can help caregivers increase their health beliefs, the positive aspects of caregiving, and know how to care the patients with schizophrenia. Therefore, health providers can apply the program to prepare caregivers to cope with problems with a positive attitude and continuous care.