THE RELATIONSHIP OF PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSES, HOSPITAL ADMISSION RATES, AND SIZE AND AGE STRUCTURE OF IMMIGRANT GROUPS

Abstract

The subject of this investigation was the difference, between the major immigrant groups and the Australian-born population, in psychiatric hospital admission rates for patients falling into five diagnostic categories, and the relationship of these rates to the size and age structure of the groups. Admission rates for patients with “schizophrenia and paranoid states” were found to be consistently higher for immigrants (excepting those from the United Kingdom and Greece) than for the native population; there was a significant inverse correlation between admission rates and the size of the groups, and a positive correlation between admission rates and the proportion of patients aged 20 to 54 years in the groups. Admission rates for “alcoholism and alcoholic psychosis” were significantly higher for males born in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Poland than for Australians; admission rates for “depressive psychosis” were higher for females born in U.K. and males born in the Netherlands; rates for “neuroses and psychosomatic disorders” were higher for all Yugoslav immigrants, for males born in N.Z. and Germany, and for females born in Hungary; rates of admissions of patients with “personality disorders” were higher only among immigrants from New Zealand. The findings were discussed in the light of the available literature.