Social impacts and costs of schizophrenia: a national cohort study using New Zealand linked administrative data

To identify a national population of individuals living with schizophrenia in New Zealand, and to examine health, social support, justice, economic outcomes and estimated government costs compared to a matched comparison group.

Data were sourced from the Integrated Data Infrastructure. Individuals with a schizophrenia diagnosis in public hospital discharge or specialist secondary mental health service data, aged 18 to 64 and living in New Zealand were included in the schizophrenia population. Propensity score matching was used to select a comparison group of individuals without schizophrenia from the New Zealand resident population and compare outcomes and costs.

In 2015 there were 18,096 people living with schizophrenia in New Zealand, a prevalence of 6.7 per 1,000 people. Compared to the matched comparison population, individuals with schizophrenia had higher hospitalisation rates for mental (OR=52.80) and physical (OR=1.18) health conditions. They were more likely to receive social welfare benefits (OR=17.64), less likely to be employed (OR=0.11) and had lower income ($26,226 lower). Per-person government costs were higher for the schizophrenia group across all domains, particularly health ($14,847 higher) and social support ($11,823 higher).

Schizophrenia is associated with a range of adverse health, social and economic outcomes and considerably higher government costs compared to the general population.