Quality of life in schizophrenia in India: comparison of three approaches.

OBJECTIVE

To compare ratings of quality of life in patients with established schizophrenia in Chandigarh, India, in both subjective and objective view points and between patients' and relatives' ratings.

METHOD: Subjective and objective quality of life was assessed in 38 patients with schizophrenia using the Quality of Life Interview - Brief Version and WHO Quality of Life - Bref scale. Key family members were also interviewed using the same scales.

RESULTS

Subjective and objective quality of life are moderately well correlated (r = 0.43) and similar agreement was found between patients and relatives (r = 0.46).

CONCLUSION

Although quality of life is characteristically measured with subjects, the use of objective measures of quality of life and key informants of patients provide useful proxy measures.