Past Issues

Objectives:The objective of this study was to examine the attendance rate and its correlates among the patients in a psychiatric day care unit. Methods: We recruited 86 patients who entered the psychiatric day care unit at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital-Keelung between January 2015 and December 2016. Most of the observed patients’ variables were categorized with multiple correspondence analysis, we examined the association of attendance rate with their individual clinical, and environmental factors. Results: Using the cutoff of 5% of the explained variation, seven dimensions were extracted. Among those , the categories of day care attendance contributed to a majority of the variance of the dimensions 3 and 4 (47.6% and 63.1%, respectively). In dimension 3, poor day care attendance was signifi cantly clustered with major depressive disorder (p < 0.001), female gender (p < 0.001), absence of cognitive impairment (p < 0.001), a short time of commute (p < 0.001), requiring fewer than two transfers (p < 0.05), and admission before 2015 (p < 0.05). In dimension 4, good day care attendance was clustered signifi - cantly with admission since 2015 (p < 0.001), low behavioral disturbance (p < 0.01), substance use disorder (p < 0.01), outpatient referral (p < 0.05), and middle age (p < 0.05). Conclusion: We found that un-attendance was clustered with major depressive disorder, female gender, absence of cognitive impairment, living close to the hospital, long-term admission, younger age and signifi cant behavioral disturbance. Since we have identifi ed these contributing factors, mental health professionals should thoroughly re-assess the patient before referral, offer assistance or reminders for attendance, and review the process of preparation, in order to improve the attendance.