Urbanisation and Psychiatric Admission Rates in the Netherlands

Abstract

This article discusses the possible links between urbanisation, demographic variables and psychiatric admission rates. Inpatient psychiatric admission rates were determined for the 647 Dutch municipalities. Then urbanisation was determined using 'area address density', a unit of measurement developed by the Dutch Central Statistical Office. Five degrees of urbanisation are distinguished. Twentynine demographic variables which might have a theoretical link with admission rates were collated for all municipalities.The results show that standardised total admission rates increase with urbanisation.The mean admission rate for the least urbanised municipalities is 2.02 per 1000 resident population, the rate for the most urbanised municipalities is 3.72 per 1000. It was then found that the prevalence of demographic risk factors increased with urbanicity. At the same time, it was found that almost all demographic variables correlated with admission rates. A multiple regression model -which accounts for 22% of variance -shows that income distribution, address density and mortality all contribute significantly to the variance in admission rates for the 647 Dutch municipalities.

Self-Reported Psychosomatic Complaints In Swedish Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults Living in Rural and Urban Areas: An Internet-Based Survey

“…Wang et al [47] recently showed that rural participants had a larger total number of visiting days, in a in a Web-based trauma intervention and visited more program modules than urban participants. With few exceptions [28], most studies on general psychiatric disorders show that the admission rates are higher in urban than in rural areas [3,4,48]. Even though the current study did not investigate specific psychiatric diagnoses, our findings are in line with the research on the effects of urbanization, especially the effect on stress-related disorders.…”

“…It is speculated that current lifestyles, environments, and societal demands, with increased exposure to stress, play a role in the changing patterns of mental health problems in this population. With less opportunity for physical activity, play, and recovery, stress reactions may become chronic, which increases the risk for psychosomatic complaints and mental disorders [3-6]. …”

A statistical model for length of psychiatric in‐patient treatment and an analysis of contributing factors

“…Since 1992 at least 25 reports have analysed LOS in psychiatry, most of them dealing with special aspects, such as the influence of psychological and demographic factors ( 11), social deprivation ( 11), neuroleptic treatment ( 12) or diagnosis ( 3, 13). They showed consistently that the length of in‐patient treatment is determined by a number of factors apart from diagnosis.…”

Socio‐economic differences in psychiatric in‐patient care

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