Measuring the burden of mental illness and substance use and the level and impact of health care response in patients with spinal trauma: a record linkage study.

Background with rationale Traumatic spinal injuries (TSI) include column fractures, spinal cord injury, or both. They are among the most severe injuries with potential long-term physical, psychological, and social consequences. Primary causes of TSIs are falls and motor vehicle crashes, however, m...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lisa Sharwood, Bharat Vaikuntam, Ashley Craig, James Middleton, Jesse Young
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Swansea University 2019-11-01
Series:International Journal of Population Data Science
Online Access:https://ijpds.org/article/view/1218
_version_ 1797424959572672512
author Lisa Sharwood
Bharat Vaikuntam
Ashley Craig
James Middleton
Jesse Young
author_facet Lisa Sharwood
Bharat Vaikuntam
Ashley Craig
James Middleton
Jesse Young
author_sort Lisa Sharwood
collection DOAJ
description Background with rationale Traumatic spinal injuries (TSI) include column fractures, spinal cord injury, or both. They are among the most severe injuries with potential long-term physical, psychological, and social consequences. Primary causes of TSIs are falls and motor vehicle crashes, however, mental illness and substance use are known to significantly increase all injury risk. Injury is also known to increase risks of mental deterioration and physical complications including self-harm and self-neglect. Main Aim We aimed to identify comorbid mental illness and/or substance use at incident TSI, quantifying associated costs and health service management of these inequities. Methods NSW record-linkage administrative data analyses (2013-2016) will determine accurate prevalence of mental illness and/or substance use disorder among all patients who sustained acute TSI during the study period. Using recurrent event analyses, we will estimate the contributions of mental illness and/or substance use disorder on the impact on hospital acquired complications (HAC), length of stay and costs; assessing records for social work and/or psychologist consultation. Results 13,489 individuals were hospitalised with acute TSI; 21% had either mental health and/or substance use diagnoses; 8.7% had both. These patients were more likely to have experienced falls or intentional self-harm, be male and have multiple comorbidity. Acute care stay and costs were on average twice that of patients with TSI without mental health and/or substance use diagnoses; additionally they were more than twice as likely to experience HACs. Only 56% of TSI patients with these comorbid conditions in the context of TSI, had documented social work or psychologist consultation. Conclusion Patients with mental illness and/or substance use disorder, experience significant health disparities that require concerted health system attention that should begin early in acute care.
first_indexed 2024-03-09T08:09:10Z
format Article
id doaj.art-02f5fc265ae5405b850063bf9fd30937
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2399-4908
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-09T08:09:10Z
publishDate 2019-11-01
publisher Swansea University
record_format Article
series International Journal of Population Data Science
spelling doaj.art-02f5fc265ae5405b850063bf9fd309372023-12-02T23:33:06ZengSwansea UniversityInternational Journal of Population Data Science2399-49082019-11-014310.23889/ijpds.v4i3.1218Measuring the burden of mental illness and substance use and the level and impact of health care response in patients with spinal trauma: a record linkage study.Lisa Sharwood0Bharat Vaikuntam1Ashley Craig2James Middleton3Jesse Young4The University of SydneyThe University of SydneyThe University of SydneyThe University of SydneyThe University of MelbourneBackground with rationale Traumatic spinal injuries (TSI) include column fractures, spinal cord injury, or both. They are among the most severe injuries with potential long-term physical, psychological, and social consequences. Primary causes of TSIs are falls and motor vehicle crashes, however, mental illness and substance use are known to significantly increase all injury risk. Injury is also known to increase risks of mental deterioration and physical complications including self-harm and self-neglect. Main Aim We aimed to identify comorbid mental illness and/or substance use at incident TSI, quantifying associated costs and health service management of these inequities. Methods NSW record-linkage administrative data analyses (2013-2016) will determine accurate prevalence of mental illness and/or substance use disorder among all patients who sustained acute TSI during the study period. Using recurrent event analyses, we will estimate the contributions of mental illness and/or substance use disorder on the impact on hospital acquired complications (HAC), length of stay and costs; assessing records for social work and/or psychologist consultation. Results 13,489 individuals were hospitalised with acute TSI; 21% had either mental health and/or substance use diagnoses; 8.7% had both. These patients were more likely to have experienced falls or intentional self-harm, be male and have multiple comorbidity. Acute care stay and costs were on average twice that of patients with TSI without mental health and/or substance use diagnoses; additionally they were more than twice as likely to experience HACs. Only 56% of TSI patients with these comorbid conditions in the context of TSI, had documented social work or psychologist consultation. Conclusion Patients with mental illness and/or substance use disorder, experience significant health disparities that require concerted health system attention that should begin early in acute care.https://ijpds.org/article/view/1218
spellingShingle Lisa Sharwood
Bharat Vaikuntam
Ashley Craig
James Middleton
Jesse Young
Measuring the burden of mental illness and substance use and the level and impact of health care response in patients with spinal trauma: a record linkage study.
International Journal of Population Data Science
title Measuring the burden of mental illness and substance use and the level and impact of health care response in patients with spinal trauma: a record linkage study.
title_full Measuring the burden of mental illness and substance use and the level and impact of health care response in patients with spinal trauma: a record linkage study.
title_fullStr Measuring the burden of mental illness and substance use and the level and impact of health care response in patients with spinal trauma: a record linkage study.
title_full_unstemmed Measuring the burden of mental illness and substance use and the level and impact of health care response in patients with spinal trauma: a record linkage study.
title_short Measuring the burden of mental illness and substance use and the level and impact of health care response in patients with spinal trauma: a record linkage study.
title_sort measuring the burden of mental illness and substance use and the level and impact of health care response in patients with spinal trauma a record linkage study
url https://ijpds.org/article/view/1218
work_keys_str_mv AT lisasharwood measuringtheburdenofmentalillnessandsubstanceuseandthelevelandimpactofhealthcareresponseinpatientswithspinaltraumaarecordlinkagestudy
AT bharatvaikuntam measuringtheburdenofmentalillnessandsubstanceuseandthelevelandimpactofhealthcareresponseinpatientswithspinaltraumaarecordlinkagestudy
AT ashleycraig measuringtheburdenofmentalillnessandsubstanceuseandthelevelandimpactofhealthcareresponseinpatientswithspinaltraumaarecordlinkagestudy
AT jamesmiddleton measuringtheburdenofmentalillnessandsubstanceuseandthelevelandimpactofhealthcareresponseinpatientswithspinaltraumaarecordlinkagestudy
AT jesseyoung measuringtheburdenofmentalillnessandsubstanceuseandthelevelandimpactofhealthcareresponseinpatientswithspinaltraumaarecordlinkagestudy