SOCIAL DEPRIVATION AND PSYCHIATRIC ADMISSION RATES IN AMSTERDAM

The main subject of this study was the link between social indicators and the (re)admission rates for, and length of stay in, in-patient men tal health care in Amsterdam. In a factor analysis of 15 sociodemograp hic variables, two principal components analysis factors were distingu ished: housing quality and socioeconomic deprivation. The census varia bles and the factors almost all had high correlations with the crude a dmission rates as well as the rates standardised for age and sex. In g eneral, the correlations with rates that were also standardised for ma rital status were significantly lower. This shows that many correlatio ns between indicators and crude rates are determined to a significant extent by the marital status profile of an area. Socioeconomic depriva tion is positively correlated with the proportion of readmissions and inversely correlated with average length of stay.