Do mental health consumers want to improve their long-term disease risk behaviours? A survey of over 2000 psychiatric inpatients.
Kate Bartlem, Jacqueline Bailey, Alexandra Metse and 5 others
PMID 29197143WHAT IT FOUND
Psychiatric inpatients had high rates of smoking, hazardous drinking, poor diet and inactivity, but many wanted change.
Most said hospital staff giving advice and support was acceptable.
Key findings
0198.9% of participants were at risk for at least one health behaviour, and 88.4% were at risk for two or more.
02Among at-risk participants, 65.3% of smokers were considering quitting or reducing smoking, and 60.6% of those with inadequate physical activity were considering increasing activity.
03Eighty per cent of participants agreed or strongly agreed that it would be acceptable for inpatient staff to give advice and support to help change health behaviours.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Health behaviours, interest in change, and acceptability were self-reported, so recall and social desirability may have made risk estimates conservative and interest or acceptability estimates too high. Only 2075 of 3626 admitted patients were analysed; many were not approached because of short admission, instability, or discharge, and nonconsenters differed in diagnosis and length of stay. The study was done in one Australian health district, so findings may not apply elsewhere. Associations used primary diagnosis only, so comorbid diagnoses may have affected the results. This was a cross-sectional survey, so it cannot show that advice or support changed behaviour.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this survey as evidence that inpatient staff advice or support improves health behaviours. It reports patients' self-reported risk, interest, and acceptability at one time, not a tested intervention effect.