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Psychiatric symptoms, social disablement and illness behaviour
The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry
|March 1, 1987
Summary
Social disability and clinical disorder both predict medical service use. However, social performance differences between patient groups diminish when clinical disorder severity is accounted for, except for psychiatric outpatients.
Area of Science:
- Social science
- Psychiatry
- Health services research
Background:
- Understanding the interplay between social functioning and healthcare utilization is crucial.
- Previous research indicates both clinical and social factors influence medical service use.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between social performance and medical service use.
- To determine if this relationship is independent of clinical disorder severity.
Main Methods:
- A study was conducted on adults in Camberwell, South London.
- Social disability, clinical disorder, and medical service use were assessed.
Main Results:
- Both social disability and clinical disorder predicted service use.
- Patients with higher impairment used psychiatric inpatient/day-patient facilities, followed by outpatients.
- General practitioner attendees showed less impairment than specialist psychiatric service users but poorer social performance than those not using medical services.
- After controlling for clinical disorder, social performance differences between groups largely disappeared, except for psychiatric outpatients who remained more socially disabled than general practice patients.
Conclusions:
- Clinical disorder severity is a primary driver of medical service use patterns.
- While social performance is associated with service use, its independent predictive power is limited when clinical severity is considered.
- Psychiatric outpatients represent a group with significant social disability, even when controlling for clinical factors.