title: Health Related Quality of Life in Family Caregivers of Patients Suffering from Mental Disorders.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In the light of the advances in treatment measures and early discharge of patients with mental disorders from psychiatric hospitals, families play important role in caring for such patients.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study is to determine the Quality of Life (QoL) of the family caregivers of patients with mental disorders.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional study was conducted in teaching health care centers affiliated with medical universities in Tehran, Iran. Sampling was conducted by convenience random technique. Participants were 238 family caregivers of mental disorder patients and the Short-Form Health Survey Questionnaire was used to gather data. The data were analyzed by Spearman's correlation, t-test and ANOVA in SPSS 18.0.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The women's mean QoL was lower than the men's. Regarding family relationship with the patients, the lowest QoL was observed among the mothers. There was a significant relationship between the caregivers QoL and economic status, the caregivers gender, family relationship with the patients and the patients' gender (p<0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The caregivers of mental disorder patients have lower QoL compared with general population. Appropriately developed plans should be implemented to improve QoL among the family caregivers of these patients.
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences , Tehran, Iran .
authors.forename: Fatemeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Noghani
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Center for Nursing Care Research, Iran University of Medical Sciences , Tehran, Iran .
authors.forename: Naiemeh
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Seyedfatemi
authors.affiliation: Lecturer, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences , Bandar Abbas, Iran .
authors.forename: Mohammad-Reza
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Karimirad
authors.affiliation: Lecturer, Department of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences , Tehran, Iran .
authors.forename: Arash
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Akbarzadeh
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Nursing and Midwifery Palliative Care Research Center and Department of Medical-Surgical Nursing, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences , Shahrekord, Iran .
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hasanpour-Dehkordi
keywords: Caregivers health; Psychiatric disorders; Psychiatric patients