TABLE A.

MARITAL STATUS BY SEX: DISCHARGES* FROM PSYCHIATRIC INPATIENT
UNITS OF GENERAL HOSPITALS, UNITED STATES 1970-1971

** Adjusted to United States population March 1971. Source of population figures used in computation of rates: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports Series P-20, No.225, Table 1: U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402: 1971.

For the marital status groups with the highest discharge rates (see Table A) separated/divorced and never married -- the third ranking referral source was the emergency service of the same hospital. Referrals from this source respectively represented 13 and 14 percent of all referral sources for never married and separated/divorced discharges. For the separated/divorced group, the emergency service actually matched the private psychiatrist category as a percentage of all referral sources. By contrast, the third leading referral source for both the married and widowed groups (10 percent of all referral sources in both cases) was the nonpsychiatric physician category. The reader is referred to Statistical Note 71 in this series for a more detailed discussion of referral source of discharges in the 1970-1971 general hospital survey, irrespective of marital status.

Length of Stay 7/

Variations in length of stay are shown in Table 2, while the cover chart (Figure 1), illustrates median length of stay for marital status groups. Differences in median length of stay were as follows:

The widowed group had the longest median length of stay; while the two marital status groups with the highest discharge rates, separated/divorced and never married, had the shortest median lengths of stay.

Differences in length of stay among the marital status groups are similarly apparent in an examination of cumulative percentage distributions for length of stay (Table B). Once again, the high-risk never married and separated/ divorced groups stood apart: they showed a tendency to be discharged within a relatively short time of admission when compared with the other two marital status groups. Thus, 48 percent and 44 percent of hospital episodes among separated/divorced and never married discharges, respectively, were of one week or shorter duration. By contrast, respective parallel percentages in the married and widowed groups were 33 and 30 percent. Widowed persons tended to have longer stays than those in any other marital status group. The reader is referred to Statistical Note 70 in this series for a more detailed discussion of length of stay of discharges in the 1970-1971 general hospital survey, irrespective of marital status.

Primary Diagnosis 8/

Table 3 presents data on primary diagnosis of discharges. Some pronounced, if not altogether unexpected, variations by marital status are apparent, and these are summarized in Figure 3.

Schizophrenia was the primary diagnosis given for 40 percent of discharges in the never married group, and this was the highest single percentage representation for any diagnosis in any marital status group. Schizophrenia also appeared as the first or second leading diagnosis for the separated/divorced and married groups, where it accounted, respectively for 28 and 19 percent of all diagnoses.

For each of the marital status groups, depressive neuroses was among the four leading diagnostic categories, but the rank order and magnitude within the groups varied. Accounting for only 10 percent of diagnoses in the never married group, the depressive neuroses category accounted for 20 percent of all diagnoses in the separated/divorced group. And depressive neuroses led all other diagnostic categories among married and widowed discharges where it accounted for 28 and 24 percent of all diagnoses in these groups, respectively.

Schizophrenia and depressive neuroses certainly appeared to be of major significance in the hospitalization of persons in psychiatric inpatient units of general hospitals irrespective of marital status. However, beyond these two categories, interesting diagnostic differences appeared among the marital status groups. For example, alcohol disorders occurred among the leading diagnoses only in the separated/divorced group, where this category ranked with depressive neuroses as the second leading category (20 percent of all diagnoses). Affective disorders (including psychotic depressive reactions) appeared among the leading diagnoses for the married and widowed groups. And, finally, although representing only 9 percent of diagnoses in this group, drug disorders occurred as a primary diagnosis in a significant number of never married discharges (Table 3).

The reader is referred to Statistical Note 68 in this series for a more detailed discussion of primary diagnosis of discharges in the 1970-1971 general hospital survey, irrespective of marital status.

Footnotes

1/ "Discharges" for purposes of this survey include discharges, deaths, placements on extended leave and transfers from the psychiatric inpatient unit of the hospital to other services in the same hospital. Figures reported in this Note are for discharges and not for individual patients as such: a particular patient may potentially have been counted more than one time in this study, depending on whether he had had multiple discharges during the study period.

2/ A "psychiatric inpatient unit" is defined as one in which beds are specifically set up and staffed for use by psychiatric patients. These beds may be located in a specific building, wing, floor or ward; or they may be a specific group of beds physically separate from the regular medical/surgical beds.