The SES setting of psychiatric hospitalization in Israel

This study examined the relationship between the SES level of localities and psychiatric hospitalization measures to determine the SES place in the planning of mental health services.

The unit of analysis in this study was the city. Data collected from Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), the National Insurance Institute and the national psychiatric hospitalization case register were used to investigate the association of SES for each city, the number of disability pension recipients for each city and the hospitalization measures: admission rates, length of inpatient episode and the length of tenure in the community.

The socioeconomic level of cities correlated significantly with the number of disability pension recipients in each city and the hospitalization measures: admission rates, length of inpatient episode and the length of tenure in the community. However, the relationship between the SES and both the psychiatric admission rates and the psychiatric disability rates differed between the lower and the higher parts of the SES scale: Both measures went up as the SES went up from level 1 to level 3 and went down as the SES level went up from level 4 to level 8.

The demand for psychiatric hospitalization was higher in the poorer communities. Reaching equity in distributing community public mental health resources seems to be not only more appropriate but also more cost-effective.