Table 5.
Synthesis of the main results regarding patients’ clinical history
| Variables | Number of studies resulted significant/Number of studies analysing the variable | Main significant resultsa
(bivariate) |
Main significant resultsa
(multivariate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Previous admissions | 32/37 | Previous admissions risk factor (23)b | Previous admissions risk factor (21) |
| Duration of illness | 2/4 | Higher length of illness risk factor (2) | No significant results |
| Age at onset | 2/6 | Mixed direction (2) | No significant results |
| Whether index admission corresponded to first onset/episode | 1/2 | First onset protective factor (1) | No significant results |
| Number of previous hospital days/average previous LoS | 2/4 | Number of previous hospital days risk factor (2) | Number of previous hospital days risk factor (1) |
| Previous use of health services | 8/10 | Increasing risk with service use (3) | Increasing risk with service use (8) |
One paper with not significant results on age at first psychiatric admission was also found
aThe number of significant results (when present) is reported in brackets for each variable. Please note that such numbers refer to the papers, and that more than one variable in the same row could be analysed in the same paper; moreover, not all studies conduct both bivariate and multivariate analysis
“Mixed direction” means that the variable resulted significant in more than one paper, but the results were contrasting
bplus one with contrary result