Hospital Readmission in First-Time Admitted Patients with Schizophrenia: Smoking Patients Had Higher Hospital Readmission Rate Than Non-Smoking Patients

OBJECTIVES: To consider smoke-free policies for the patients with schizophrenia, the present study examined how smoking behavior is related to hospital readmission among patients with schizophrenia. METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted in 2007 on 460 discharged patients with schizophrenia who voluntarily admitted in the participating psychiatric hospitals at first time. We reviewed smoking status, readmissions, and other variables including socio-demographic characteristics, process of care, and social functioning at discharge using the Global Assessment of Functioning scale (GAF). RESULTS: The rate of cigarette smoking in this study was 42.2%. The rate of smoking was significantly higher in males (56.1%) than in females (26.2%). Mean GAF score at discharge was slightly higher in smoking patients than non-smoking patients (g = 0.18). Cox proportional hazard model revealed that hospital readmission rate was significantly higher in smoking patients than non-smoking patients after controlling for all other variables (HR = 1.78). CONCLUSIONS: Non-smoking patients had fewer hospital readmissions than smoking patients. This finding could be a reason to promote cessation of smoking which might provide positive influences on prognosis of schizophrenia.