European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

CORRELATION BETWEEN KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE TREATMENT OF MENTAL ILLNESS AMONG THE CAREGIVERS OF MENTALLY ILL

Anoopa K. R.*, Anand S., Anu S. Khosh and Sajini Raju

ABSTRACT

The objectives of the present study were to assess the knowledge on treatment of mental illness, attitude towards it, the correlation between the knowledge and attitude towards treatment of mentally ill, the association between knowledge on treatment of mental illness and selected demographic variables and to find out the association between attitude towards treatment of mental illness and selected demographic variables. The study included 60 caregivers of mentally ill who were admitted in the Psychiatry wards of District Hospital, Kollam. Demographic proforma was used to collect the demographic variables. Self structured knowledge questionnaire and self structured attitude scale were used to collect the data regarding knowledge of care givers on treatment of mental illness and attitude of caregivers towards treatment of mental illness respectively. Most of the caregivers that is, 20% were in the age group of 25-35 years and above 55 years. Majority of the caregivers, that is 35% were in the age group of 46-55 years. 10% of them were in the age group of 36-45 years and 15% of them were below 25 years. 28.33% were males and 71.67% were females. Based on their education status, 26.67% were having primary education, 23.33% having the education below SSLC, 28.33% having SSLC, 13.33% with Plus two or Pre degree and 8.33% with Degree and above. 76.67% were unemployed, 15% were self employed and 8.33% were private employees. Majority of the caregivers, that is 50% had poor knowledge regarding treatment of mentally ill. Only 22% had good knowledge and 28% had moderate knowledge. The mean knowledge score was 32.97 and standard deviation was 3.99. In the case of attitude of caregivers towards treatment of mental illness, 23% of the caregivers had positive attitude towards treatment of mentally ill and 45% had neutral attitude. About 32% caregivers were with negative attitude towards the treatment of mentally ill. The mean attitude score was 58.73 and standard deviation was 4.23. The coefficient of correlation „r‟ was 0.287. Also no association was found between selected demographic variables with knowledge and attitude of caregivers on treatment of mental illness. So it was concluded that present study has shown a significant correlation of knowledge and attitude of caregivers on treatment of mental illnessat 0.05 level of significance.

Keywords: Knowledge, Attitude, Caregivers, Mental Illness, Correlation.