Descriptive characteristics of ED re-presentations with mental health primary diagnosis within 1 year from a patient’s initial separation both overall and stratified by exposure variables considered (N=40 290)
| Mental health-related ED re-presentations (n) | Days until a first mental health-related ED re-presentation | ||||
| Never | 1–2 times | 3+ times | Incidence rate* | ||
| n (%)† | n (%)† | n (%)† | Mean (95% CI) | Mean (censored)‡ | |
| Total | 30 577 (76) | 7882 (20) | 1831 (5) | 0.61 (0.59 to 0.63) | 91.64§ |
| Sociodemographic characteristics | |||||
| Sex | |||||
| Male | 14 062 (46) | 3510 (45) | 793 (43) | 0.56 (0.54 to 0.58) | 88.86 |
| Female | 16 504 (54) | 4370 (55) | 1038 (57) | 0.65 (0.63 to 0.67) | 93.98 |
| Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander | |||||
| No | 26 814 (88) | 6814 (87) | 1560 (85) | 0.60 (0.58 to 0.62) | 91.35 |
| Yes | 3191 (10) | 984 (12) | 255 (14) | 0.76 (0.71 to 0.81) | 93.39 |
| Age at first presentation (years) | |||||
| 20–26 | 13 828 (45) | 3247 (41) | 750 (41) | 0.59 (0.57 to 0.61) | 93.44 |
| 15–19 | 12 143 (40) | 3386 (43) | 725 (40) | 0.59 (0.57 to 0.61) | 96.70 |
| 8–15 | 4606 (15) | 1249 (16) | 356 (19) | 0.71 (0.67 to 0.75) | 85.93 |
| Rurality or remoteness | |||||
| Major cities | 20 018 (65) | 5101 (65) | 1189 (65) | 0.60 (0.58 to 0.62) | 91.04 |
| Inner regional | 7217 (24) | 2020 (26) | 481 (27) | 0.66 (0.63 to 0.69) | 93.75 |
| Outer regional or remote or very remote | 1914 (6) | 516 (7) | 103 (5) | 0.61 (0.55 to 0.67) | 95.89 |
| SEIFA quartile | |||||
| Most disadvantage: First (816–940) | 7596 (25) | 1977 (25) | 470 (26) | 0.61 (0.58 to 0.64) | 93.03 |
| Second (942–971) | 7266 (24) | 1902 (24) | 470 (26) | 0.64 (0.61 to 0.67) | 92.74 |
| Third (972–1038) | 7191 (23) | 1836 (24) | 404 (22) | 0.60 (0.57 to 0.63) | 93.26 |
| Least disadvantage: Fourth (1039–1155) | 7096 (23) | 1922 (24) | 429 (23) | 0.61 (0.58 to 0.64) | 89.18 |
| Characteristics of the initial ED presentation | |||||
| ED primary diagnosis | |||||
| Anxiety | 7635 (25) | 1434 (18) | 273 (15) | 0.42 (0.39 to 0.45) | 88.02 |
| Depression | 3041 (10) | 805 (10) | 159 (9) | 0.54 (0.49 to 0.59) | 84.77 |
| General mental health problem | 6576 (21) | 1895 (24) | 403 (22) | 0.63 (0.60 to 0.66) | 93.73 |
| Suicidal | 5038 (16) | 1414 (18) | 337 (18) | 0.69 (0.65 to 0.73) | 92.82 |
| Self-harm | 2356 (8) | 694 (9) | 214 (12) | 0.79 (0.73 to 0.85) | 96.15 |
| Others | 5984 (20) | 1640 (21) | 445 (24) | 0.70 (0.66 to 0.74) | 93.03 |
| Mode of arrival | |||||
| Arrived on own | 17 631 (58) | 4555 (58) | 944 (52) | 0.56 (0.54 to 0.58) | 88.36 |
| Ambulance | 11 466 (38) | 2881 (37) | 806 (44) | 0.68 (0.65 to 0.71) | 94.18 |
| Police | 1397 (4) | 422 (5) | 78 (4) | 0.60 (0.53 to 0.67) | 109.25 |
| Others | 62 (0) | 17 (0) | 3 (0) | 0.59 (0.24 to 0.94) | 104.74 |
| Source of referral | |||||
| Others | 4670 (15) | 1237 (16) | 284 (15) | 0.63 (0.59 to 0.67) | 95.61 |
| Self/family/friend | 25 812 (85) | 6609 (84) | 1537 (84) | 0.60 (0.58 to 0.62) | 91.14 |
| Level of clinical facility | |||||
| 1 or 2 | 1145 (4) | 278 (3) | 76 (4) | 0.61 (0.53 to 0.69) | 86.03 |
| 3 or 4 | 10 996 (36) | 2904 (37) | 660 (36) | 0.60 (0.57 to 0.63) | 91.89 |
| 5 or 6 | 17 868 (58) | 4566 (58) | 1072 (59) | 0.62 (0.60 to 0.64) | 92.12 |
| Triage | |||||
| 1 or 2 | 4410 (14) | 1095 (14) | 261 (14) | 0.62 (0.58 to 0.66) | 97.10 |
| 3 | 15 557 (51) | 4287 (54) | 1029 (56) | 0.65 (0.63 to 0.67) | 90.83 |
| 4 or 5 | 10 604 (35) | 2499 (32) | 541 (30) | 0.54 (0.51 to 0.57) | 90.96 |
| Admitted to the hospital | |||||
| No | 23 879 (78) | 5812 (74) | 1226 (67) | 0.56 (0.54 to 0.58) | 89.30 |
| Yes | 6698 (22) | 2070 (26) | 605 (33) | 0.75 (0.71 to 0.79) | 98.11 |
| Left at own risk | |||||
| No | 29 447 (96) | 7492 (95) | 1740 (95) | 0.60 (0.58 to 0.62) | 92.54 |
| Yes | 1130 (4) | 390 (5) | 91 (5) | 0.72 (0.63 to 0.81) | 74.76 |
| Completed treatment | |||||
| No | 9434 (31) | 2853 (36) | 759 (41) | 0.72 (0.69 to 0.75) | 94.71 |
| Yes | 21 143 (69) | 5029 (64) | 1072 (59) | 0.56 (0.54 to 0.58) | 90.02 |
| Transferred to another hospital | |||||
| No | 28 382 (93) | 7227 (92) | 1681 (92) | 0.60 (0.58 to 0.62) | 91.32 |
| Yes | 2195 (7) | 655 (8) | 150 (8) | 0.67 (0.61 to 0.73) | 96.70 |
| Arrival time of day | |||||
| 08:00–17:59 | 15 078 (49) | 4058 (52) | 957 (52) | 0.62 (0.60 to 0.64) | 90.62 |
| 18:00–23:59 | 10 167 (33) | 2761 (35) | 632 (35) | 0.65 (0.62 to 0.68) | 91.22 |
| 00:00–07:59 | 5332 (18) | 1063 (13) | 242 (13) | 0.51 (0.47 to 0.55) | 97.40 |
| Departure day of week | |||||
| Friday–Sunday | 12 461 (41) | 3040 (39) | 706 (38) | 0.57 (0.55 to 0.59) | 91.95 |
| Monday–Thursday | 17 948 (59) | 4771 (60) | 1110 (61) | 0.63 (0.61 to 0.65) | 91.54 |
| First episode length of stay (min) | |||||
| <180 (3 hours) | 12 911 (42) | 3037 (39) | 643 (35) | 0.54 (0.52 to 0.56) | 91.47 |
| 180–480 (3–8 hours) | 13 344 (44) | 3521 (45) | 827 (45) | 0.62 (0.60 to 0.64) | 90.50 |
| 460+ (8+ hours) | 4317 (14) | 1322 (17) | 361 (20) | 0.78 (0.73 to 0.83) | 95.47 |
*Incidence rate is computed as per 365 person-days.
†Percentages (%) are relative to column totals, except for the otal row wherein they are relative to the total patient sample size (n=40 290).
‡Censored mean is appropriate to account for the censoring at 365 days, the length of the follow-up period. Note that this mean is only computed for those patients who ever re-presented within 365 days since initially presenting to an ED with a mental health-related primary diagnosis.
§Only overall time to first event can be computed a 95% CI due to sample size issues. In this case, 95% CI is 89.77 to 93.72.
ED, emergency department.