A Comparison Study of Cognitive Functioning and Quality of life in Schizophrenia Patients and Normal Population Regarding Gender Effect

Given the increasing rate of prevalence of schizophrenia in the world it is important to address issues pertaining to this disorder namely cognitive and quality of life of individuals afflicted with this disorder. As such, the goal of the present study was to assess the relationship between cognitive functioning and the quality of life with regard to the gender of the patient in comparison with normal subjects. To do so, SF-36 and MoCA questionnaires were used to assess quality of life and cognitive functioning, respectively, of 80 schizophrenic patients (men and women) as well as 40 normal people. Following the filling out the above-mentioned questionnaires by the patients and normal subjects Pearson’s correlation and Mann-U Whitney statistics were performed on the obtained data. Results showed that there was a significant relationship between cognitive functioning and quality of life of the patients. However, no significant relationship was observed between men and women. Moreover, no significant relationship was observed in Qol of schizophrenic men and women. Also, our results indicated that there was a significant differences regarding cognitive functioning and the quality of life between the two groups. amongst patients who had high scores in cognitive functioning the existence of physical and mental problems had little effect on their Qol although no significant difference was observed in men and women. This could indicate that the perception of schizophrenic patients from their Qol can be impacted by their cognitive functioning.