Quality of Life in People with Mental Illness in Non-residential Community Mental Health Services in Hong Kong

Objective: To identify the subjective quality of life in people with chronic mental health problems who were in non-residential community mental health services, and to investigate factors affecting their quality of life after the illness.

Methods: People with mental illness (n = 105) were recruited. They were assessed with the self-rated Hong Kong Chinese version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief questionnaire.

Results: The participants had lower total quality-of-life and the 4 domain scores of the questionnaire than the general population. They were particularly dissatisfied with their financial situation. Duration of illness was positively correlated with subjective quality-of-life variables while age at onset of the mental illness was negatively correlated with subjective quality of life, in particular the physical health, psychological health, and environmental domains.

Conclusion: This study highlighted the significance of duration and age at onset of illness in subjective quality of life of people with mental illness. A longitudinal study to test the causal relationships between these factors and the quality of life in people with mental illness is recommended.

目的：检视使用社区精神健康服务的慢性精神病患者其主观生活质量，以及探讨患病後影响他们生活质量的因素。

方法：纳入105名精神病患者，并以世界卫生组织生活质量简化版问卷香港中文版进行评估。

结果：与一般人口比较，这些患者的整体生活质量和四项子生活质量评分皆较低。他们对财务状况尤其不满意。病程与主观生活质量呈正相关，而发病年龄则与主观生活质量呈负相关，尤於生理健康、心理健康和环境领域为甚。

结论：精神病患者的病程和发病年龄会影响其主观生活质量。建议进行纵向研究以测试上述因素与精神病患者其生活质量之间的因果关係。