精神症狀、藥物使用對中、高齡的慢性思覺失調症病患其健康促進生活型態之影響

Background: Previous studies on healthy lifestyles have neglected patients with chronic schizophrenia. Objective: This study explored the influence of psychiatric symptoms and use of psychotropic medications on the health-promoting lifestyle (HPLS) of middle- and oldage patients with chronic schizophrenia. We alsoinvestigated the differences in HPLSs with different social demographic variables and determined the association of anthropometric measures, diabetes,hypertension, and dyslipidemia with the HPLS in these patients. Methods: Inthis cross-sectional study, a cluster stratified random sampling method was used. A total of 210 patients with chronic schizophrenia aged over 40 years were recruited from a psychiatric teaching hospital located in northern Taiwan. Parameters included the participants' basic demographic variables, medical history and medication types, the Psychiatric Symptoms Scale, health behaviors, medication perception, anthropometric measures, and the Health-Promotion Lifestyle Scale. The statistics were subjected to independent sample t-test, variance analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis. Results: The participants' mean score indicated a moderate level of HPLS. Among the six subscales, the participants scored the highest in nutrition and the lowest in sports. A significant negative correlationbetween negative psychiatric symptoms andthe HPLS was observed. The participants'self-evaluation of their feelings of how psychotropic medications improved their health conditionand their self-evaluation of their satisfaction with the treatment of drug side effects were positively correlated with their HPLSs. After controlling for sex variables and health measurement variables, the predictors of an HPLS included negative symptoms and a regular exercise habit. The two predictors explained 27%of the variance. Conclusions: The study results indicate the importance of establishing an HPLS for patients with chronic schizophrenia during middle and old ages. Patients requireassistance with controlling their weight and reducing their obesity to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.