Severe and common mental disorders and risk of emergency hospital admissions for Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions (ACSCs) among the UK Biobank cohort

Niedzwiedz, C. L. , Aragón, M. J., Breedvelt, J. J. F., Smith, D. J. , Prady, S. L. and Jacobs, R. (2023) Severe and common mental disorders and risk of emergency hospital admissions for Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions (ACSCs) among the UK Biobank cohort. BJPsych Open, 9(6), e211. (doi: 10.1192/bjo.2023.602) (PMID:37933539)

Abstract

Background People with mental disorders have worse physical health compared with the general population, which could be attributable to receiving poorer quality healthcare. Aims To examine the relationship between severe and common mental disorders and risk of emergency hospital admissions for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs), and factors associated with increased risk. Method Baseline data for England (N = 445 814) were taken from UK Biobank, which recruited participants aged 37–73 years during 2006–2010, and linked to hospital admission records up to 31 December 2019. Participants were grouped into those with a history of either schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression or anxiety, or no mental disorder. Survival analysis was used to assess the risk of hospital admission for ACSCs among those with mental disorders compared with those without, adjusting for factors in different domains (sociodemographic, socioeconomic, health and biomarkers, health-related behaviours, social isolation and psychological). Results People with schizophrenia had the highest (unadjusted) risk of hospital admission for ACSCs compared with those with no mental disorder (hazard ratio 4.40, 95% CI 4.04–4.80). People with bipolar disorder (hazard ratio 2.48, 95% CI 2.28–2.69) and depression or anxiety (hazard ratio 1.76, 95% CI 1.73–1.80) also had higher risk. Associations were more conservative when including all admissions, as opposed to first admissions only. The observed associations persisted after adjusting for a range of factors. Conclusions People with severe mental disorders have the highest risk of preventable hospital admissions. Ensuring people with mental disorders receive adequate ambulatory care is essential to reduce the large health inequalities they experience.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This project has been funded by the Closing the Gap network. Closing the Gap is funded by UK Research and Innovation and their support is gratefully acknowledged (Grant reference: ES/S004459/1). Any views expressed here are those of the project investigators and do not necessarily represent the views of the Closing the Gap network or UKRI. CLN also acknowledges funding from a Medical Research Council Fellowship (MR/R024774/1) and Lord Kelvin/Adam Smith Fellowship.
• Keywords: Schizophrenia, bipolar, anxiety, depression, ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Smith, Professor Daniel and Niedzwiedz, Dr Claire
• Authors: Niedzwiedz, C. L., Aragón, M. J., Breedvelt, J. J. F., Smith, D. J., Prady, S. L., and Jacobs, R.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Health & Wellbeing > General Practice and Primary Care; College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Health & Wellbeing > Mental Health and Wellbeing
• Journal Name: BJPsych Open
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• ISSN: 2056-4724
• ISSN (Online): 2056-4724
• Copyright Holders: Copyright: © The Author(s) 2023
• First Published: First published in BJPsych Open 9(6): e211
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
302182		A machine learning approach to understanding comorbidity between mental and physical health conditions	Claire Niedzwiedz	Medical Research Council (MRC)	MR/R024774/1	SHW - Public Health