The relationship between knowledge level on self-care and occurrence of aggression in schizophrenic patients aged 18-45 years attending the out patients department at Parirenyatwa hospital psychiatric unit Annex

Abstract

The Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals Psychiatric Unit is a government referral hospital for psychiatry for all the provinces in Zimbabwe. The extent of occurrence of aggression was 11.1% for 2012 which is a cause for concern. In Ethiopia the prevalence of aggression in the community is 19.6% whereas in America 80.9% of aggression in schizophrenic patients . The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between knowledge level on self-care and occurrence of aggression in schizophrenic patients attending the Outpatients clinic at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals Psychiatric Unit in April/May 2013. Orem’s self-care conceptual model was used to guide the study particularly that the model emphasises on empowering the self-care agency. A descriptive correlational study design using a probability simple random sampling method was used to select a sample of 80 subjects from the Outpatient’s clinic attendances. A structured interview schedule was used to collect data. The instrument used had three sections, demographic, occurrence of aggression and knowledge on self-care data questionnaires. SPSS version 10 was used for statistical analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse demographic , occurrence of aggression data, knowledge on self care data. Inferential statistics were used analyse knowledge on self care. Sixty percent of the participants were aged between 25-45 years, (52.5%) were women, and (41.2%) were married. Though the majority (95%) had gone through formal education (90%) of these were from the lower socio-economic class . Fifty percent had 1-5 episodes of aggression. Pearson’s coefficient correlation showed a moderate negative correlation between knowledge level and occurrence of aggression (r= -.390, p< .01). Regression analysis of occurrence of aggression data indicated a moderate linear relationship R – Squared=0.16(F=0.159) at p<0.01 therefore only 16% of aggression is accounted for by level of knowledge on self care. Patients require more input from nurses on self care to reduce the occurrence of aggression.