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 mental health care in Amsterdam. In a factor analysis of 15 sociodemographic variables, two principal components analysis factors were distinguished: housing quality and socioeconomic deprivation. The census variables and the factors almost all had high correlations with the crude admission rates as well as the rates standardised for age and sex. In general, the correlations with rates that were also standardised for marital status were significantly lower. This shows that many correlations between indicators and crude rates are determined to a significant extent by the marital status profile of an area. Socioeconomic deprivation is positively correlated with the proportion of readmissions and inversely correlated with average length of stay.