Selected aspects of the epidemiology of psychoses in Croatia, Yugoslavia. IV. Representative sample of Croatia and results of the survey.

This is the fourth paper in a series on the epidemiology of psychoses in Croatia, Yugoslavia. Data collected from 1960-1975 on a representative sample of the population of the study area, including the Istrian Peninsula and the northern Adriatic littoral, and the control area, the rest of Croatia, indicate that functional psychotic illnesses are more frequent in the study area, with the highest rates in older population groups. The finding is not associated with coastal or inland residence, with educational level, or with occupational group. Other diseases in excess in the study area are diabetes mellitus, psoriasis, and alcoholism. Nutritional disorders are about equally distributed between study and control areas. Data on extent of cigarette smoking was more prevalent in the study area, cases of functional psychoses smoked no more than the general population.