OBJECTIVES: This study compared demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with and without history of recurrent hospitalization to a psychiatry unit of a private general hospital, and further examined association between these characteristics and recurrent psychiatric hospitalization.
METHODOLOGY: A retrospective case-control study was conducted via review of medical records of 68 adult patients with history of recurrent hospitalization (two or more hospitalizations within a span of 18 months during the study period). The control group consisted of 68 randomly selected medical records of adult patients admitted within the study period but without such history. Descriptive statistical analysis and multivariate comparisons using chi-square analysis and independent samples two-tailed t-tests between patient characteristic of the two groups were done. Odds ratio between patient variables and recurrent psychiatric hospitalization were also computed.
RESULTS: Compared with the control group, patients with history of recurrent hospitalization were more likely to be divorced or separated (x2=4.847, df=134, p=0.028), had significantly greater number of hospitalizations (t=8.203,df=134,p=0.000), and were reported to have more psychotic symptoms (x2=4.423, df=1, p=0.035), comorbid general medical conditions (x2=36.100, df=1, p=0.000), and suicidal and/or homicidal ideations and/or behavior (x2=4.204, df=1, p=0.040), with lower Global Assessment of Functioning ratings (t=-2.148, df=134, p=0.034). Further statistical analysis revealed that the odds of recurrent hospitalization was 5.03 times higher for patients who were widowed, separated or divorced compared those who were not (CI=1.05 to 24.24).The odds of recurrent hospitalization for patients who were unemployed was 1.52 times higher (CI=0.77 to 2.98) compared to patients who were not.The odds of recurrent hospitalization was 2.11 times higher (CI=1.05 to 4.25) for patients reported to have psychotic symptoms, 9.81 times higher (CI=4.47 to 21.55) for patients reported to have comorbid general medical and/or surgical conditions, and 2.07 times higher (CI= 1.00 to 4.25) for patients reported to have suicidal and/or homicidal ideations and/or behavior, compared to patients who did not report any of these.
CONCLUSION: The only demographic variable that showed significant difference between case and control groups was civil status, with more patients in the case group who reported being widowed, separated, or divorced. This study showed significant differences in the clinical characteristics between the two groups i.e. those who had history of recurrent hospitalization had more psychotic symptoms, comorbid general medical or surgical conditions, suicidal and/or homicidal ideations and/or behavior, and lower GAF ratings.