Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Asian Journal of Psychiatry journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ajp Short communication Healthy lifestyle behavior and personal control in people with schizophrenia with healthy controls: A cross-sectional comparative study Jothimani Gurusamy, Sailaxmi Gandhi, Sendhil Kumar Ragupathy, Dinakaran Damodharan, Venkatasubramanian Ganesan, Palaniappan Marimuthu National Institute of Mental Health and NeuroSciences, Hosur Road, Department of Nursing, India ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Healthy lifestyle behavior Personal control Physical health Schizophrenia Healthy controls ABSTRACT The aim of the article was to compare persons with schizophrenia and healthy controls about their life style on their physical health and personal control. Evidences highlights that it helps to change risk behaviours associated with co morbid physical health problems. Subjects were recruited from adult mental health services in tertiary level psychiatric center.Comparisons between the groups were done by using the lifestyle and personal control questionnaire. Subjects were 86 with schizophrenia, 72 were healthy controls. Results showed significant dif- ference. However, physical health was considered to be a less important priority in their personal life by persons with schizophrenia. 1. Introduction Persons with diagnosis of mental illness mainly, schizophrenia ex- perience less life expectancy from physical health problems than the general population. Schizophrenia have notably higher morbidity and mortality rates resulting from cardio vascular disease (CVD) and stroke (De Hert et al., 2011; Dikeç et al., 2018; Heald, 2010). Evidence also suggests that people with schizophrenia may have higher risk of death from co- morbid physical illness and metabolic side effects as compared with those suffering from non-psychotic mental illness including de- pression (Wu et al., 2019; Folsom et al., 2002). In persons with schi- zophrenia, the rate of metabolic syndrome is thought to be between 41% and 67% (John et al., 2009). Many factors may contribute the physical health problems in per- sons with schizophrenia, such as inadequate physical inactivity, smoking, poor dietary habits, substance abuse and anti-psychotic medication (Murphy et al., 2019; Burghardt and Ellingrod, 2013). The instigation of lifestyle behavioral change is mainly dependent on suc- cessive factors such as an initial awareness of the harm caused to physical health by the particular behavior, and the successful actuali- zation of this change in behavior (Davis et al., 2015). Health locus of control refers to people’s attribution of their own health to personal or environmental factors (Thakral et al., 2014). The health locus of control construct is assessed in three dimensions: in- ternal locus of control, external locus of control or powerful others, and chance (Wallston and Wallston, 1978). People with a high internal locus of control feel more empowered to bring about behavioral change independently, whereas those whose locus of control is located in powerful others or in chance feel less empowered to bring about be- havioral change related to physical health. Hence, the present study attempted to identify the healthy life style behaviors and personal control in people with schizophrenia to improve the physical health problems. The primary objectives of the study were to explore and assess the healthy life style behaviors and personal control in people with schi- zophrenia and compare with healthy controls with respect to their overall physical health. 2. Materials & methods The study was conducted in a tertiary level psychiatry center in South India. The convenience sampling method was adopted, and 158 subjects (86 persons with schizophrenia and 72 controls) were re- cruited. The healthy life style behaviors and personal control in both the groups were assessed. Patient dependents were selected as controls because other than disease condition almost all socioeconomic vari- ables were considered as matching with study subjects. 2.1. Data collection Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the Institute Ethics Committee, in tertiary level psychiary centre, (No.NIMH/DO/ IEC(BEH.Sc.DIV)/2016. The patients and their dependents who attend outpatients services and schizophrenia clinic on a particular day were https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2019.09.008 Received 27 June 2019; Received in revised form 5 September 2019; Accepted 5 September 2019 E-mail address: jothisrinivas.jothi@gmail.com (J. Gurusamy). Asian Journal of Psychiatry 45 (2019) 95–98 1876-2018/ © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. T