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Mental patients' attitudes toward hospitalization: a neglected aspect of hospital tenure

Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.145.1.29

Recent research on hospital tenure has neglected mental patients' attitudes toward hospitalization. The authors consider problems with past research on these attitudes and examine "living preference"--the patient's preference for living in the hospital or the community. Assessments of patients' living preferences were obtained from clinicians working with 187 chronically mentally ill patients in a state hospital aftercare program. These assessments strongly predicted both components of hospital tenure--rehospitalization and in-hospital days--during a 1-year follow-up. The authors point out the conceptual, heuristic, and practical clinical advantages of examining living preference rather than traditional correlates of hospital tenure.

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