Quality of Life and Other Characteristics of Viennese Mental Health Care Users

Abstract

Background: The purposes of this study are (1) to characterise patients with different treatment experiences, (2) to evaluate differences in quality of life (QoL) among patients with different treatment experiences, (3) to evaluate changes in QoL following community resettlement, and (4) to find predictors of overall life satisfaction (OLS). Methods: Treatment experiences are defined according to service use as follows: (a) user of inand outpatient services (overall users), (b) user of inpatient (inpatients) or (c) outpatient facilities only (outpatients). Demographic and clinical data of 425 psychiatric patients are analysed cross-sectionally in relation to their treatment experiences. QoL of former inpatients is followed up after hospital discharge. Results: Long-term `overall users' have a significantly higher QoL than long-term `outpatients' or `inpatients'. QoL of former inpatients increases after discharge. Predictors of higher OLS are high income, high subjective social functioning (SFQ), good self-rated health, satisfactory QoL domains as well as being single or cohabiting, diagnosis of schizophrenia, `outpatients', and `overall users'. Together they explain 63% of the variance in patients' subjective OLS. Conclusion: QoL is independent of illness severity. Deinstitutionalisation improves QoL and OLS is mainly predicted by subjective variables.