A ten-year perspective of mortality risk among mentally ill patients in sheltered care.

The ten-year risk of mortality was assessed for a sample of 393 former psychiatric patients who were living in sheltered care settings in California in 1973. Compared with the general state population, residents of sheltered care facilities were 2.85 times more likely to die than would be expected if age-specific rates for the state applied to them. Excess mortality was due to heart disease, cerebrovascular diseases, and all other natural and unnatural causes except malignant neoplasms. The mortality rate of the subjects was closer to that of a low-income subsample of the California population, suggesting that the high mortality rates of patients in sheltered care settings may be due to their low-income status.