Retrospective assessment of factors associated with readmission in a large psychiatric hospital in Guangzhou, China

Shanghai Arch Psychiatry. 2014 Jun;26(3):138-48. doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1002-0829.2014.03.005.

Abstract

Background: Most psychiatric inpatients in China are involuntarily admitted by their families, resulting in relatively long admissions and relatively low readmission rates. However, this pattern may change after implementation of China's new national mental health law (promulgated in 2013), which restricts involuntary psychiatric admissions to the small proportion of mentally ill individuals who are a danger to self or others.

Aim: Assess the factors associated with readmission rates of psychiatric inpatients in Guangzhou, China.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of data from the Guangzhou Psychiatric Hospital, one of the largest psychiatric hospitals in China, used Cox regression models to evaluate the relationship between age, gender, diagnosis, marital status, employment status, relationship with the primary caregiver, type of medical insurance, length of stay of the index admission, and the number of previous admissions to estimate the risk of readmission over the year following discharge. Multivariate regression is used to assess factors associated with the total time of readmission during the year of follow-up.

Results: Among 3455 patients admitted from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2012 who had a mean (sd) length of stay of 65.7 (66.3) days, 476 (13.8%) were readmitted one or more times within one year of discharge. After considering all potential predictors of readmission in a multivariate survival analysis, the number of previous hospitalizations prior to the index admission was the only statistically significant predictor of readmission. The only factor that was significantly related to the total time of readmission was the duration of the index admission.

Conclusion: Shorter length of stay was not associated with increased readmission rates in patients admitted to a large public psychiatric hospital in southern China. This suggests that the expected decrease in the length of psychiatric inpatient admissions that is likely to occur when, based on China's new regulations, most patients are admitted voluntarily may not lead to increased rates of readmission. Prospective studies with a more comprehensive set of outcome measures (including patient functioning, medication adherence, and family burden) are needed to monitor the effect of the law on patients and on the distribution of mental health services.

背景: 中国大多数精神科住院患者是由家人强制性入院,导致住院时间相对较长和再次住院率相对较低。然而,这种模式随着新颁布的中国精神卫生法(颁布于2013年)可能发生变化,该法限定了强制性精神科入院为那些对自己或他人产生危险的小部分精神疾病患者。

目标: 评估中国广州精神科住院患者再次住院率的相关因素。

方法: 对从中国最大的精神病医院之一——广州市精神病医院收集来的数据进行回顾性分析,使用Cox回归模型评估年龄、性别、诊断、婚姻状况、就业状况之间的关系,与主要照顾者的关系、医疗保险、指标住院的时间、以往的入院次数之间的关系,进而评估出院后一年内再住院的风险。使用多因素回归分析来评估随访一年中再次住院总时间的相关因素。

结果: 2011年1月至2012年12月31日间3455例住院患者的平均住院时间(标准差)为65.7(66.3)天,476(13.8%)名患者出院后一年内再入院一次或多次。在将再入院所有可能的预测因素进入多因素生存分析后,指标住院前的以往住院次数是再次住院的唯一有统计学意义的预测因子。与再住院总时间显著相关的唯一因素是指标住院的长短。

结论: 缩短住院时间并没有增加中国南方一家大型公立精神病院的患者再住院率。这表明,根据中国的新法规,大部分病人自愿入院时不仅不会导致再次住院率的增加,可能还会出现预期的精神病患者的住院时间的缩短。前瞻性研究将需要结合更全面的结果评估(包括患者功能,服药依从性,和家庭负担)来监测精神卫生法对患者和精神卫生服务分布的影响。

Keywords: China; length of stay; mental health law; psychiatric inpatients; readmission; survival analysis.

Grants and funding

This study was supported from funding to H.H. from the Chinese National Key Clinical Program in Psychiatry to the Guangzhou Brain Hospital, Guangzhou, China (No. 201201001) and from the Guangzhou Municipal Health Bureau (No. 20131A011083). The funding source had no role in the study design, analysis or interpretation of data or in the preparation of the report or decision to publish.