title: Analysis of patterns of mental health care with three different approaches (cross-sectional, longitudinal and dynamic).
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This article attempts to provide an overview of different methods of analysis of information on service utilization from different approaches.
  
  
  METHODS
  A systematic review of the studies of pattern of care is done. The analysis of pattern of care has been divided into three different approaches: cross-sectional, longitudinal and dynamic.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In cross-sectional studies, information on utilization is based on the total number of contacts with mental health services during a given period. In the second approach, called longitudinal, survival analysis is applied considering the interval of time between each contact. The third type of analysis, called here the "dynamic" approach, involves the application of mathematical models based on the Markov chain to analyse the probability of change from one type of contact to another.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We emphasise the need for further studies designed to analyse data from psychiatric case registers with standardised models for mental health services utilization analysis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain. bmoreno@hsc.sas.cica.es
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Moreno Küstner
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Torres González
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Luna del Castillo
mesh_terms: D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008390:Markov Chains