Analysis of hospital costs by morbidity group for patients with severe mental illness

Objectives The goal of this study is to analyse hospital costs and length of stay of patients admitted to psychiatric units in hospitals in a European region of the Mediterranean Arc. The aim is to identify the effects of comorbidities and other variables in order to create an explanatory cost model.Methods In order to carry out the study, the Ministry of Health was asked to provide data on access to the mental health facilities of all hospitals in the region. Among other questions, this database identifies the most important diagnostic variables related to admission, like comorbidities, age and gender. The method used, based on the Manning–Mullahy algorithm, was linear regression. The results were measured by the statistical significance of the independent variables to determine which of them were valid to explain the cost of hospitalization.Results Psychiatric inpatients can be divided into three main groups (psychotic, organic and neurotic), which have statistically significant differences in costs. The independent variables that were statistically significant (p