Marital Status and Hospital Use Report of a Study of Elderly People Admitted to Acute Hospital in-Patient Care

This study forms one of two related studies set up to examine the relationship between marital status and hospital use. These studies arose from the analysis of data collected in the Hospital In-Patient Enquiry and

the Hospital Activity Analysis,Hhich pointed to the existence of substantial differences in the rates of use of non-psychiatric inpatient care by nonmarried compared with married people. For example it was calculalted that

in England and Wales, 1973, if non-married people had experienced the same rates of admission and length of stay as married people they would have occupied about 23,000 fewer beds each day. As might be expected the majority of

this additional bed use by non-married people was concontratod among those aged 65 years and over. However the higher rate of use by the non-married was found among both men and women and appeared to occur in both acute and

long-stay and geriatric hospitals.