Patients with schizophrenia who were hospitalized for the first time were recruited from the National Health Insurance Research Database from 2001 to 2010 (n = 808, mean age 28.9 years) and compared with matched controls. Data on the demographics, cost, and utilization of medical resources of patients who were readmitted were compared with non-readmitted patients. The readmission time curve was analyzed by the Kaplan–Meier method.
570 (70.5%) patients were readmitted within 10 years; the median time between admissions was 1.9 years, and 25% of subjects were readmitted within 4 months of the first hospitalization. There were no significant differences in age, gender, or length of hospitalization between the readmission and non-readmission groups. Taking into account all psychiatric medical services, the readmission group had a significantly higher mean frequency of care and a greater medical cost than the non-readmission group and matched controls. However, there were no significant differences with regard to non-psychiatric medical services.
Schizophrenia has a high rate of readmission and high medical cost in naturalistic settings. In addition to the traditional hospital-based treatment model for patients with schizophrenia, the development of an effective intervention program is important, especially in the early years of the disease.