Burden among caregivers of people with mental illness at Jimma University Medical Center, Southwest Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

Table 2 Description of socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of patients (N = 406)

Variable	Category	n	%
Median age of the patient (IQR)		29.50/14.00
Mean age onset of illness of patient (± SD)		26.10 ± 11.322
Median patient duration of illness in years (IQR)		4.00/6.00
Sex of the patient	Male	248	61.1
Sex of the patient	Female	158	38.9
Employment status of patient	Unemployed	37	9.1
	Working full time	27	6.7
	Working part-time	97	23.9
	Stop working	245	60.3
Educational status of patient	Not educated	115	28.3
	1–8th grade	136	33.5
	9–12th grade	94	23.2
	College/above	61	15.0
Psychiatric diagnosis of the patient	Schizophrenia	210	51.7
	Other psychotic d/os^a	39	9.6
	BAD	50	12.3
	MDD	80	19.7
	Other disorders^b	27	6.7
Patients’ episodes of illness	Single	184	45.3
	2–4 episodes	138	34.0
	5 or more episodes	84	20.7
Patient history of psychiatric admission	Yes	130	32.0
Patient history of psychiatric admission	No	276	68.0
Patient ever use any type of substance in life	Yes	157	38.7
Patient ever use any type of substance in life	No	249	61.3
Patient use of substance in the last 12 months	Yes	117	74.5
Patient use of substance in the last 12 months	No	40	25.5
Patient illness/CGI scale/	Normal	51	12.6
	Borderline ill	17	4.2
	Mildly ill	135	33.3
	Moderately ill	153	37.7
	Markedly ill	37	9.1
	Severely ill	13	3.2

ISSN: 1744-859X