Social Welfare Centers Protect Outpatients with Mood Disorders from Risk of Hospital Admission.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: South Korea faces difficulties in the management of mentaldisorders, and those difficulties are expected to gradually worsen. Therefore, we analyzed the relationship betweensocialwelfarecentersandhospitaladmissionafter outpatient treatment formooddisorders. METHODS: We used data from the National Health Insurance Service National Sample Cohort 2002-2013, which included all medical claims filed for the 50,160 patients who were newly diagnosed with amooddisorder among the 1,025,340 individuals in a nationally representative sample. We performed a logistic regression analysis using generalized estimating equation (GEE) models to examine the relationship betweensocialwelfarecentersandhospitaladmissionafter outpatient treatment formooddisorders(ICD-10: F3). RESULTS: There was a 3.9%admissionrate among a total of 99,533 person-years.Outpatientswho lived in regions with moresocialwelfarecenterswere less likely to be admitted to ahospital(per increase of fivesocialwelfarecentersper 100,000 people; OR: 0.958; 95% CI: 0.919-0.999).Socialwelfarecentershad an especially strong protective effect on patients with relatively mildmooddisordersand those who were vulnerable to medical expenditures. CONCLUSIONS: Considering the protective role ofsocialwelfarecentersin managing patients withmooddisorders, health-policy makers need to consider strategies for activating mental healthcare.