Factors Influencing Long-Term Psychiatric Hospitalisation of the Elderly in Kuwait

Abstract

In this study both psychosocial and clinical aspects of elderly patients were investigated in relation to long hospital stay in the only psychiatric hospital in Kuwait. Patients with longer stay did not differ statistically from short stay patients in distributions of sex, age, nationality, marital status, family system, diagnostic categories or factors blocking patients' discharge from hospital. Significant association was found between withdrawal from social interaction, and those admitted for personal suffering and those who had poor relationships with their families. Long stay elderly patients who came from extended families were more likely to be medically unfit for discharge than patients who came from nuclear families. Multivariate explorations of possible associations were performed by hierarchical loglinear analysis which revealed that long stay in hospital was significantly more likely in the widowed who had physical illness and came from extended families with poor relationships. The findings are discussed in relation to cultural and clinical background and compared to similar findings published abroad.