Abstract
Abuse and health consumerbehavior in women with mental illness in remission.
To know the level of abuse, effective consumer behavior and itsrelationship in female with mental illness in remission.
Fifty one consecutive females wereassessed using socio-demographic pro forma, Composite AbuseScale (CAS), Effective Consumer Scale(ECS) and Indian Disability Assessment Scale (IDEAS).
Eighty nine percent patients experiencedabuse (physical or psychological). Correlation analysis revealed a significantcorrelation between harassment andknowledge of treatment (p<. 01); physical abuse with religion (p<.05) andattitude of others (p<.05); emotional abuse with knowledge of treatment(p<.01) and severe abuse withreligion (p<.05). Socioeconomic status has astatistically significant correlation with domain of consumer behavior such as communications(p<05), negotiation(p<01) and decision – taking action (p<05). Other statistically significant correlation found were between family type and negotiation (p<05), diagnosis and uses of health information (p<05) & priorities (p<05). Marital status has a negative correlation withcommunications (p<05). Total scoreon CASis negatively correlated with scores on ECS, but statistically notsignificant.
Abuse and effective consumer behaviormay vary with socio-demographic variables.