Aging and schizophrenia: current health services research and recommendations

Little is known about the functioning and health care use of older patients with schizophrenia. Understanding the use patterns of older patients with schizophrenia, a rapidly growing population, will inform health care planners and policy makers who make decisions about resource allocation and program development. The results are presented from a large-scale study to examine the relationship between age and the use of health services and level of functioning in patients with schizophrenia. Older adults with schizophrenia experienced fewer psychiatric hospitalizations but, once hospitalized, had longer inpatient stays. In contrast, older patients had fewer outpatient psychiatric visits and more medical outpatient visits and medical hospitalizations than younger individuals. The relatively lower use of outpatient psychiatric care by older patients with schizophrenia suggests that there may be barriers to accessing these services. When older patients are hospitalized for psychiatric reasons, their stays are longer. The implications of these findings are discussed.