Resumen

EICHSTADT, Stephanie A.; CHETTY, Shren; MAGAGULA, Thulisile G.  y  SWART, Xan. Factors affecting readmission of adolescent mental healthcare users to a psychiatric hospital. S. Afr. j. psyc. [online]. 2023, vol.29, n.1, pp.1-8. ISSN 2078-6786.  http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajpsychiatry.v29i0.2110.

BACKGROUND: Adolescent mental illness is increasing worldwide, leading to more admissions to psychiatric institutions. Many adolescents may require multiple readmissions, which is disruptive to their holistic well-being and costly for the healthcare sector. Identifying especially modifiable risk factors for readmission remains an important step in providing potential areas for improving patient care AIM: This study investigated the risk factors associated with the readmission of adolescent mental healthcare users to a specialist psychiatric unit SETTING: The specialist adolescent unit at Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital METHODS: In this retrospective study, the clinical files of 345 adolescents admitted between 2015 and 2019 were reviewed. The primary outcome variable was readmission, that is, whether a patient was readmitted to Weskoppies Hospital (n = 98) compared to those with no recorded readmission (n = 247 RESULTS: Readmitted adolescents were significantly younger on first admission compared to the non-readmitted group (13.46 vs 14.26, p = 0.016). Bivariate analysis showed that the readmitted group had a much higher rate of non-adherence to treatment (38.1% vs 10.5%, p = < 0.001). Patients with a family history of mental illness had a significantly higher risk of readmission (52.2% vs 37.5%, p = 0.015 CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents were more likely to be readmitted if they had first admission at a younger age, a family history of mental illness or non-adherence to treatment CONTRIBUTION: Identifying especially modifiable risk factors for readmission of adolescents to improve patient care, particularly in the South African context where there is a paucity of research on this topic

Palabras clave : adolescent; mental health; readmission; risk factors; psychiatric hospital.

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