Expressed emotion of caregivers among schizophrenic patients visiting Jimma University Medical Center Psychiatry Outpatient Unit, Southwest Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Expressed emotion (EE) measures the emotion among caregivers of schizophrenic patients and is predictive of symptom levels in a range of medical and psychiatric conditions. It is worth assessing expressed emotion and associated factors among caregivers of patients with schizophrenia in Ethiopia since there is limited data on this issue in this part of the world. OBJECTIVE: To assess the status of expressed emotions and selected patients’ clinical factors among caregivers of patients with schizophrenia attending Psychiatry Outpatient Unit of Jimma University Medical Center, Southwest Ethiopia, 2019. METHOD: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 422 caregivers of schizophrenic patients using a consecutive sampling technique. Data were collected using a structured interviewer administrated questionnaires (Family Questionnairre) which assessed the level of expressed emotion. Data were entered into Epidata 4.4 and analyzed by Statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 25. Descriptive statistics was which used to summarize data, bivariate 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 models. RESULTS: High expressed emotion was observed in 43.6% of respondents while caring for schizophrenic patients for about 6–8 years, having 3–4 episodes of the illness which was significantly associated with high expressed emotion. CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed that there is a high level of expressed emotion among caregivers. It also showed that increment in the episode of the illnesses had a significant association with high caregivers’ expressed emotion. Hence, health care systems which provide interventions for patients with schizophrenia need to design proper strategies to address caregivers’ needs as well.