What leads to frequent re-hospitalisation when community care is not well developed?
BACKGROUND
Treatment programmes are largely hospital based in developing countries and yet research on factors predicting frequent re-hospitalisation remains scarce from them. This cross-sectional study of factors predictive of frequent re-hospitalisation explored whether factors reported from developed countries could apply to India.


METHODS
Information was collected on four dimensions (socio-demographic, socio-cultural, treatment and illness variables) from 90 patients readmitted to a teaching psychiatric institute in India over a 3 month period. Patients were grouped into Frequently Re-hospitalised (FR) with three or more admissions to hospital in the last 18 months and Less Frequently Re-hospitalised (LFR) with two or fewer admissions in the last 18 months.


RESULTS
Support available for treatment, days spent in hospital and cost of treatment had a significant effect on whether the patient was more frequently hospitalised. The place of domicile tended to have an effect on the frequency of hospitalisation.


CONCLUSIONS
Factors predictive of frequent re-hospitalisation reported in this study differed from those in developed countries. The above variables identify high users of inpatient beds who may be targeted for specific interventions to reduce re-hospitalisation rates.
Kumar
Shailesh
S
Lakeland Health Limited, Auckland School of Medicine, Pvt bag 3023, Rotorua, New Zealand. kumars@lhl.co.nz
Robinson
Elizabeth
E
Kumar Sinha
Vinod
V
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010359:Patient Readmission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*