Preexisting Correlates of Hospital Stress

More than 450 general medical and surgical patients were surveyed as part of an ongoing study of psychosocial factors in illness. Patients completed the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (Holmes and Rahe, 1967) as a measure of life stress prior to hospitalization and a hospital stress rating scale as a measure of hospital stress. Additional data included demographic variables, information about prior hospitalizations, and diagnosis, coded according to the Seriousness of Illness Rating Scale (Wyler et al., 1968). Analysis using multiple regression procedures indicated age (negatively) and life stress (positively) as predictors of hospital stress, for both medical and surgical patients. In addition, for medical patients, recency of previous hospitalization was a significant predictor of hospital stress, those with recent hospitalization reporting more stress than others. For surgical patients, those with serious illnesses reported more stress than others, and women reported more stress than men. Results revealed several preexisting correlates of hospital stress that can be easily identified at the time of hospital admission.