BackgroundIt is widely acknowledged that quality of mental health services is routinely worse than physical health services across countries. However, studies separately investigating mental health services often report high-level satisfaction, even comparing with physical health services. Therefore, this study aimed to compare patient-reported quality between inpatient services for mental and physical health in China.MethodsAn inpatient survey was conducted among service users of mental and physical health services. Patient-reported quality was measured by the responsiveness performance questionnaire after patient discharge and based on patients' multiple experiences of hospitalization in the past 3 years. Chi-square tests were performed to compare the two patient groups' ratings on inpatient services for mental and physical health, and multivariate logistic regression was performed to adjust covariates in the group comparison.ResultsInpatient services for mental health were rated better than those for physical health on “treating with respect” (AOR = 3.083, 95% CI = 1.102–8.629) and “choosing a healthcare provider” (AOR = 2.441, 95% CI = 1.263–4.717). However, mental health services had poorer ratings on “asking patient's opinions” (AOR = 0.485, 95% CI = 0.259–0.910). For other responsiveness items, no significant difference was detected between the two types of inpatient services.ConclusionMental health inpatient services provided by China's tertiary hospitals could perform as well as physical health inpatient services in most aspects and even better perform regarding dignity and choice of healthcare providers. However, neglecting patients' voices is more severe in inpatient services for mental health.
Background: Understanding components and predictors of delay of first treatment for mental health problems are crucial to inform interventions for earlier treatment. However, Chinese-context knowledge of this theme is still limited. Methods: We conducted an inpatient survey among 206 patients with various mental disorders in China. Delay of first utilization of mental healthcare (Delay-Total) and its two components of help-seeking delay (Delay-H) and referral delay (Delay-R) were assessed in terms of occurrence and duration. Binary logistic regression was performed to test predictors of Delay-Total, Delay-H and Delay-R, and multiple linear regression was used to test predictors of delay durations. Results: Overall, 66.0% patients experienced Delay-Total, with a duration range of 0 to 353 months; 49.5% patients had Delay-H (duration range = 0–207 months) and 29.6% with Delay-R (duration range = 0–323 months). Multivariate logistic regression analysis found that the diagnosis of severe mental disorders was a consistent predictor for a reduced chance of Delay-Total, Delay-H and Delay-R. Multiple linear regression analysis demonstrated that younger age of disorder onset and disorder onset before 2016 were significantly associated with longer delay. Conclusions: Delay of first treatment for mental health problems is still common in China. However, the development of mental health policy and services promotes shorter treatment delay. The diagnosis of common mental disorders and younger age of onset are risk factors of the occurrence and duration of delay, respectively. Thus, education of the public and non-mental-healthcare professionals are needed for better disorder recognition and more efforts should be inputted to support youngsters’ utilization of mental healthcare.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.