Schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder: Length of stay and associated factors.

Background: Patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder often require longer admissions.

Aim: To explore length of stay (LOS) and associated factors of patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, admitted to a public sector specialised psychiatric hospital, over a 4-year period.

Setting: The study was conducted at Tara Hospital in Johannesburg.

Methods: A retrospective record review of 367 adult schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder patients admitted between 01 January 2015 and 31 December 2018. Average LOS was calculated and the proportion of short-stay (< 30 days), medium-stay (31-90 days) and long-stay (> 90 days) admissions determined. Sociodemographic, clinical and admission outcome data were collected and analysed from a randomly selected subset of patients in each LOS category.

Results: Mean LOS was 128 days (median 87, interquartile range [IQR] 49-164, range 0-755 days). A significantly greater proportion had long-stay admissions ( < 0.001). Male gender ( = 0.018), being unmarried ( = 0.006), treatment resistant ( < 0.001) and on clozapine ( = 0.009) were factors found to have a significant association with long-stay admissions. Rates of unemployment (> 80%), comorbid substance use disorders (> 40%), medical illnesses (> 40%), antipsychotic polypharmacy (> 40%) and readmissions (> 80%) were high. Most (> 80%) were discharged.

Conclusion: Long-stay admissions were frequently required for patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder admitted to Tara Hospital.

Contribution: This study highlights factors associated with long-stay admissions in patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. More research is needed into whether increased access to community-based services, such as residential and daycare facilities, outpatient substance rehabilitation programmes and dual diagnosis clinics, could translate into shorter admissions, less frequent relapses and improved outcomes in this population.