Design and context
The authors carried out a retrospective, observational and analytical study, regarding all patients seen by a psychiatrist at CHPL in the year 2017 and living in Lisbon (N= 5161). Data were collected regarding main psychiatric diagnosis (according to the International Classification of Diseases, 10th edition – ICD-10), patients’ need for psychiatric hospitalization that year, and whether that admission was voluntary or not.
Then, based on the 2011’s national public census data, spatial autocorrelation analysis was performed, regarding the existence of possible geographic clusters, considering general number of patients, main diagnosis, need for psychiatric hospitalization and need for compulsive hospitalization (versus voluntary).
The authors also identified the public primary care facilities (PCF, N=15) in the central area of Lisbon, analyzing the number of patients seen in Psychiatry within multiple radius of distance from each PCF, and how many of them had an admission at an acute psychiatric ward (also within a certain distance radius). It is considered that public PCFs are the main focus of the general treatment of all patients, in coordination with all other medical specialties. Therefore, PCFs can be important focal points for the development of initiatives regarding disease prevention, psychoeducation and patient management.
Participants of the study
Patients seen in Psychiatry at CHPL in 2017 (aged 18 or older), living in the central and eastern regions of Lisbon (according to the Census 2011 data), both in outpatient and inpatient care. In Portugal, the admission into an acute psychiatric ward is considered a last resort to the treatment of patients, therefore it is a measurement of severity of their disorder. Finally, the compulsory admission at an acute psychiatric ward is determined by the court of law, designated for someone who, due to the psychiatric disorders, creates a dangerous situation for legal assets of a significant value, whether personal or external, of a personal or patrimonial nature, and refuses to submit to the necessary medical treatment; and/or does not present the necessary insight to assess the meaning and scope of the consent, when the absence of treatment will severely deteriorate his condition [20].
Individuals without psychiatric diagnosis, or those whose registration did not allow a proper data collection and subsequent statistical analysis were excluded from the study.
Data collection
Prior to data collection, the study was submitted to and approved by the hospital's ethics and scientific-pedagogical committees (Hospital deliberations: CCP 02/2019 e CES 02/2019), with particular attention paid to the current General Regulation on Data Protection [21].
The collection of the psychiatric follow-up variables (diagnosis, psychiatric admission in 2017, and compulsory admissions that year) was performed through a direct request of the anonym data to the competent entities of the Hospital, thus avoiding patients’ identification by the authors.
Regarding geographical data, only one of the main authors had access to the patients’ postal code (and only to this information), in order to identify the sub-section of Lisbon (according to the 2011’s census) [17], where they reside. The identification of the census subsection (not the specific address, but the lowest denominator of the census data, which includes a number of buildings located in a small area) allowed patients’ anonymity to be maintained.
Finally, all PCFs located in central Lisbon were identified and georeferenced, thus allowing a subsequent analysis regarding the accessibility of patients to primary care.
Measures
Regarding main diagnosis, the patients were grouped into the main categories listed below (increasing the statistical power of the statistical analysis performed):
- Organic, including symptomatic, mental disorders (F00-09);
- Mental and behavioral disorders due to use of alcohol (F10);
- Mental and behavioral disorders due to psychoactive substance use, excluding alcohol (F11-19);
- Schizophrenia, schizotypal and delusional disorders (F20-29);
- Manic Episode and Bipolar Disorder (F30-31);
- Depressive episode, recurrent depressive disorder and persistent mood disorders (F32-34);
- Anxiety disorders (F40-41);
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (F42);
- Reaction to severe stress, and adjustment disorders (F43);
- Dissociative [conversion], Somatoform and Other neurotic disorders (F44-49);
- Eating Disorders (F50);
- Sexual dysfunction, not caused by organic disorder or disease and Gender identity disorders (F52 + F64);
- Disorders of adult personality and behavior (F60-69);
- Mental retardation (F70-79);
- Disorders of psychological development (F80-90);
- Hyperkinetic Disorders (F90);
- Behavioral and emotional disorders with onset usually occurring in childhood and adolescence, (excluding Hyperkinetic disorders) (F91-98);
- Diseases of the nervous system (G00-99).
All patient variables were measured as categorical ones (admissions in 2017, as well as if it was voluntary or compulsory, were measured as yes/no questions). The exact number of patients living around each PCF was considered (continuous variable).
Data analytic approach
Statistical analysis was carried out using the statistical software R studio©, version 3.4.2, as well as QGIS, version 3.0.2, software applications.
Patients were initially spatially merged according to Census 2011 data, at the census subsection tract. Spatial autocorrelation was measured using joint counting statistics, based on the number of existing pairs of adjacent patient/patient locations (queen criterion of contiguity, which includes all units that share a common vertex with each square), and considering 25x25 meters to represent the area of each patient (average area of the Census’ subsections in the area of the city here considered). Statistical analyzes were performed for the overall number of patients, main group of disorders, need for acute psychiatric admission, and whether that admission was voluntary or not, considering 95% confidence intervals.
Distance between each patient and each PCF was initially estimated (average of 656 meters), as well as distance to CHPL (using “distances” and “multipoint.vars” functions and packages in RStudio). Average distance to the PCF and to CHPL were compared among patients with a psychiatric admission in 2017 versus patients without admissions in that year, and between compulsory admissions versus voluntary ones (using Student’s t-test). Then, to access proximity and concentration of patients to PCF, the number of patients living within a defined radius was calculated for each PCF - two different radiuses were calculated: 656 and 1000m, the latter considering that it was the distance needed to include 75% of the total number of patients. Comparative analysis of the data collected, identifying the PCF that had the smallest average distance from the patients’ residency, and the ones that have the biggest number of patients in each radius, was performed. Statistical analyzes were performed for the overall number of patients, main group of disorders, need for acute psychiatric admission, and compulsory admissions. Considering that the present study had a focus on patients’ accessibility to PCF, as they present possible places for development of measures regarding disease prevention and psychoeducation, and also considering that many psychiatric patients have worsened access to PCF (not having an assigned general practitioner), it was accepted that many patients were considered twice, in case their place of residency was associated with more than one PCF.