Patterns and correlates of psychiatric hospitalization in a nationwide sample. II. Correlates of length of hospitalization and length of stay out of hospital.

A nationwide random sample of psychiatric patients (n = 832) admitted for hospitalization in Israel in 1980 was followed up until the end of 1984. A multivariate analysis was performed, where the dependent variables were: the cumulative length of all hospitalizations, the mean duration of hospitalization and the mean length of stay out of hospital. The independent variables were: age, sex, marital status, ethnic origin, diagnosis, and various indices of previous hospitalizations. For patients whose hospitalization in 1980 (index hospitalization) was the first in their life, older age and male gender predicted a low probability of readmission, and the diagnosis of schizophrenia a long cumulative stay. For patients whose index hospitalization was not the first in their life, the main variables predictive of long cumulative stay were: old age, being single, long duration and high frequency of previous hospitalizations. Patients tended to maintain the same relative length of inpatient stay and the same frequency of readmission from the beginning of their hospitalization history.