Community characteristics that affect hospitalization and rehospitalization rates in a municipal psychiatric hospital.

Age-specific rates of psychiatric admissions for Brooklyn are almost exclusively explained by socioeconomic measures. A measure of interpersonal contact explains an additional small increment of the variance. When the same age-specific rates are compared for whites and blacks, the relative importance of socioeconomic measures lessens and social and family structures emerge as significant predictors. The existence of unique ethnic-related factors as intervening variables in hospital admissions is strongly suggested by the data. A measure of interpersonal contact best predicts the percentage readmitted. In contrast the percentage admitted is strongly related to social and family structure measures.