Factors Influencing First Admission Rates to Canadian Mental Hospitals: II. An Analysis of Provincial Differences, 1950-1952.

• Published in: Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal
• Main Authors: Gregory, Ian, Psych, D.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 1959
• Subjects: General Medicine; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/070674375900400113; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/070674375900400113

The present article is the second part of a study of first admission rates to Canadian mental hospitals, and consists of an analysis of differences in rates for each of the ten provinces during the three year period 1950–1952. Overall age standardized rates were much higher than the national average in two provinces, British Columbia and Saskatchewan, and considerably lower than the average in Quebec and Newfoundland. The provincial distribution of age sex standardized rates showed a positive correlation with percentage of voluntary admissions that was probably significant, and a higher positive correlation with admission rates for psychoneuroses that was extremely significant. Female rates exceeded male rates most commonly in the age group 30–39 years (and in the overall rates for Saskatchewan), but in most age groups and provinces male rates were higher than female. The provincial distributions of rates for the age group 0–19 years, and for the diagnosis of mental deficiency, reflected the accommodation available for cases with this disorder. The provincial distributions of rates for the age group 70 years and over, and for the organic psychoses of senility (excluding in both instances the province of Nova Scotia), showed moderate and probably significant positive correlation with the percentages of married and foreign born in the adult population, and with the concentration of psychiatrists. The provincial distributions of rates for the intermediate age groups tended to reflect that of the overall age standardized rates. Rates for psychoneuroses correlated highly with the latter, but rates for other diagnoses were more randomly distributed. It is concluded that differences in mental hospital first admission rates for the Canadian provinces during the period 1950–1952 are less indicative of the incidence of mental disorders than of such factors as social judgement regarding what constitutes mental abnormality, social demand for mental hospital care, availability of mental hospital accommodation or of ...