Social Inequalities and Rehabilitation Among Patients with Mental Illness

Objectives: The concept of social position ("soziale Lagen") includes horizontal (gender, age) and vertical (occupation, education) indicators of social inequalities. For the first time, this concept is used to identify health and health care inequalities among rehabilitation patients with mental illness. Methods: Analyses are based on a survey of 327 patients with mental illness in rehabilitation clinics in northern Germany. Social inequalities are analyzed according to psychosocial health at baseline, utilization of therapies during the stay and psychosocial health 4 month after discharge by applying bi- and multivariate statistical procedures. Results: Vertical inequalities were found in psychosocial health at baseline and 4 months later. In contrast, no inequalities were found in the utilization of therapies during the stay. Conclusion: Health inequalities can be identified by vertical indicators, whereas horizontal indicators are not significantly associated with health outcomes in this study.