Social Determinants of Neighborhood Psychiatric Admissions: the Role of Open Data

Open data programs offer health care planners the opportunity to investigate disparities in health care utilization in a simple and cost-effective manner. This study employs publicly available census and psychiatric inpatient admission data for a large North American city to explore the association between sociodemographic characteristics and admissions, with an emphasis on housing-related factors. A regression model demonstrates that adult neighborhood inpatient admissions are significantly associated with the proportions of residents in collective dwellings (including homeless shelters and group homes) and in deteriorated housing. Other significant predictors are the population proportions of those married or co-habiting and of visible minorities, as well as neighborhood crime rate. These findings suggest the role of housing as a social determinant of psychiatric inpatient treatment. The open data approach used can be applied to local efforts to address imbalance in inpatient treatment and to equitably allocate hospital beds.