A 30‐year follow‐up study of a child psychiatric clientele. I. Demographic description

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Abstract
A register investigation was carried out as of December 31, 1980, with the aim of giving a broad description of a child psychiatric clientele 30 years after admission to hospital. The material consists of 322 patients - 189 boys (59%) and 133 girls (41%) - who were admitted during the period 1949-1951 to the only 2 child psychiatric department at that time in Denmark. We succeeded in identifying 93% of the patients. The mean age at the time of analysis was 38.6 years (range 32-46). The material was compared with the age-related Danish population by marital status, vocational education, and socioeconomic class. A total of 115 patients (36%) had admitted to an adult psychiatric department, and 50 patient only once. A total of 95 patients (30%) had committed criminal offences and 12 had only committed traffic offences. A total of 60 patients (19%) had obtained disability pensions. During the 30-year follow-up period, 19 patients (6%) had died. A statistically significant extra mortality was found only for women. Four patients had committed suicide. By logistic regression analysis, a statistically significant correlation was found between criminal record and admission to psychiatric department and the variables: divorce, no vocational education, and lowest socioeconomic class. About 54% had managed well, judging by the variables employed.