title: Mental patients' attitudes toward hospitalization: a neglected aspect of hospital tenure.
abstract: Recent research on hospital tenure has neglected mental patients' attitudes toward hospitalization. The authors consider problems with past research on these attitudes and examine "living preference"--the patient's preference for living in the hospital or the community. Assessments of patients' living preferences were obtained from clinicians working with 187 chronically mentally ill patients in a state hospital aftercare program. These assessments strongly predicted both components of hospital tenure--rehospitalization and in-hospital days--during a 1-year follow-up. The authors point out the conceptual, heuristic, and practical clinical advantages of examining living preference rather than traditional correlates of hospital tenure.
authors.affiliation: Cambridge Hospital, Mass.
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Drake
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Wallach
mesh_terms: D000359:Aftercare; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002908:Chronic Disease; D006760:Hospitalization; D006783:Hospitals, State; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D010359:Patient Readmission