Fit of Individual and Community Characteristics and Rates of Psychiatric Hospitalization

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Abstract
A study was conducted of all first admissions to inpatient care in licensed Massachusetts mental hospitals during a three-year period, centered around the 1960 Census, to test the hypothesis that people with a particular personal characteristic who are living in communities where that characteristic is less common should have a higher rate of psychiatric hospitalization than people with the characteristic living in communities where it is more common. The findings give substantial support to the "fit" hypothesis studied. Within the fifteen tests of the hypothesis, the rates were in the predicted direction in eleven; and in the eleven, the difference in nine was statistically significant. Specifically, the hypothesis was supported for people with the following characteristics, living in towns grouped according to the proportion of the population having that characteristic: (1) younger (15-34 years), (2) medium age (35-54), (3) married, (4) Massachusetts born, (5) born elsewhere in the United States, (6) professional workers, (7) craftsmen, (8) operatives, and (9) persons of unknown occupation.

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