Abstract
Background: Previous research showed that there was a significant increase in psychiatric hospital admission of postpartum mothers. The aim of the current study is to describe the length of hospital stays and patient days for mental and behavioural disorders (MBD) of new mothers in the first year after birth. Method: This was a cohort study based on linked population data between the New South Wales (NSW) Midwives Data Collection (MDC) and the NSW Admitted Patients Data Collection (APDC). The study population included primiparous mothers aged from 18 to 44 who gave birth between 1 July 2000 and 31 December 2005. The Kaplan–Meier method was used to describe the length of hospital stay for MBD. Results: For principal diagnoses of MBD, the entire length of hospital stay in the first year postpartum was 11.38 days (95% CI: 10.70–12.06) for mean and 6 days (95% CI: 5.87–6.13) for median. The length of hospital stay per admission was 8.47 days (95% CI: 8.03–8.90) for mean and 5 days (95% CI: 4.90–5.10) for median. There were 5,129 patient days of hospital stay per year for principal diagnoses of postpartum MBD in new mothers between 1 July 2000 and 31 December 2005 in NSW, Australia. Conclusions: MBD, especially unipolar depressions, adjustment disorders, acute psychotic episodes, and schizophrenia, or schizophrenia-like disorders during the first year after birth, placed a significant burden on hospital services due to long hospital stays and large number of admissions.
Highlights
Mental health morbidity in the perinatal period is a major public health issue with postpartum depression affecting up to 15 % of women [1,2]
From 1 July 2000 to 31 December 2005, there were 5,861 primiparous mothers aged 18–44 years who admitted to a New South Wales (NSW) hospital (7,394 admissions) with diagnoses of mental and behavioural disorders (MBD) in the first year postpartum
The median number of days was a better estimate than the mean for central tendency because the distributions of the length of hospital stay in this study were skewed
Summary
Mental health morbidity in the perinatal period is a major public health issue with postpartum depression affecting up to 15 % of women [1,2]. A cohort study in Danish population showed that the rate of first-time hospital admission for mental disorders in the first year postpartum was 0.1% including 0.6% in the first month after birth [4]. In Australia, there were 20 public psychiatric hospitals, 122 public acute hospitals with a psychiatric ward or unit, 26 private psychiatric hospitals and 234 government-operated community and residential mental health facilities in 2004–2005 [6] The aim of the current study is to describe the length of hospital stays and patient days for mental and behavioural disorders (MBD) of new mothers in the first year after birth. There were 5,129 patient days of hospital stay per year for principal diagnoses of postpartum MBD in new mothers between 1 July 2000 and 31 December 2005 in NSW, Int. J.
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