Assessing quality of life and readmission rates among women in psychiatric care: a mixed-method study

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Abstract

Background

The mental health of women is significantly shaped by gender-related issues stemming from social and cultural disparities, which intensify female susceptibility and culminate in mental disorders. Despite a plethora of studies delineating the effects of gender on mental health, there exists a conspicuous deficiency in research investigating women’s viewpoints regarding their own experiences of rehospitalization. Therefore, the principal aim of our investigation was to assess the relationship between rehospitalization and the Quality of Life (QoL) among women undergoing treatment at a psychiatric care institution.

Methods

We employed a mixed-methods research framework to examine the QoL and the variables pertinent to the readmission of twenty women from a public psychiatric hospital situated in the interior region of Espírito Santo, Brazil. The quantitative aspect evaluated QoL using the scores and analytical guidelines established by the World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief Version (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire. The results from this phase were subjected to descriptive statistical analysis. The qualitative data were derived from semi-structured interviews aimed at exploring the factors associated with readmission; the insights obtained underwent narrative analysis. This study was approved by the ethics committee. The interviews were only carried out after the patients were medically discharged.

Results

Women who are readmitted do not have their problems viewed objectively and, consequently, are not having them resolved, as the factors contributing to the mental health of these patients are complex and span across the domains of physical, psychological, social relationships, and environment. There is a notably low overall QoL (M = 47.78) in the study population, with particularly poor scores in the environment (44.49), psychological (47.71) and social relationships (48.54) domains. These findings align with participants’ testimonies, which emphasize the role of unstable living conditions, financial insecurity, social isolation, and family dysfunction in their ongoing struggles with mental health.

Conclusions

The mental health outcomes of women are shaped by a multitude of factors, encompassing social support, access to resources, and individual coping strategies. Approaches to mental health care that are humanized and that address these factors are imperative for enhancing QoL and mitigating readmission rates.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40359-025-02687-z.

Related collections

Most cited references 36

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Qualitative research explores complex phenomena encountered by clinicians, health care providers, policy makers and consumers. Although partial checklists are available, no consolidated reporting framework exists for any type of qualitative design. To develop a checklist for explicit and comprehensive reporting of qualitative studies (in depth interviews and focus groups). We performed a comprehensive search in Cochrane and Campbell Protocols, Medline, CINAHL, systematic reviews of qualitative studies, author or reviewer guidelines of major medical journals and reference lists of relevant publications for existing checklists used to assess qualitative studies. Seventy-six items from 22 checklists were compiled into a comprehensive list. All items were grouped into three domains: (i) research team and reflexivity, (ii) study design and (iii) data analysis and reporting. Duplicate items and those that were ambiguous, too broadly defined and impractical to assess were removed. Items most frequently included in the checklists related to sampling method, setting for data collection, method of data collection, respondent validation of findings, method of recording data, description of the derivation of themes and inclusion of supporting quotations. We grouped all items into three domains: (i) research team and reflexivity, (ii) study design and (iii) data analysis and reporting. The criteria included in COREQ, a 32-item checklist, can help researchers to report important aspects of the research team, study methods, context of the study, findings, analysis and interpretations.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Tassiane Cristina Morais: morais.tassiane@gmail.com

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMC Psychol

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): BMC Psychol

Title: BMC Psychology

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 2050-7283

Publication date (Electronic): 10 April 2025

Publication date PMC-release: 10 April 2025

Publication date Collection: 2025

Volume: 13

Electronic Location Identifier: 361

Affiliations

[1 ]School of Sciences of Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Vitória (EMESCAM), ( https://ror.org/01qcg0c38) Vitoria, ES 29045-402 Brazil

[2 ]Laboratory of Studies Design and Scientific Writing, Postgraduate Division, Centro Universitário FMABC, ( https://ror.org/034jg6t98) Santo André, 09060-870 Brazil

[3 ]School of Medicine, University of Limerick, ( https://ror.org/00a0n9e72) Limerick, V94 T9PX Ireland

[4 ]Department of Urban Planning and Community Development, School for the Environment, University of Massachusetts Boston, ( https://ror.org/04ydmy275) Boston, MA 02125 USA

Article

Publisher ID: 2687

DOI: 10.1186/s40359-025-02687-z

PMC ID: 11983974

PubMed ID: 40211425

SO-VID: db867a3f-df8b-4a5c-bc74-8e82de5dec9e

License:

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

History

Date received : 10 June 2024

Date accepted : 2 April 2025

Custom metadata

Keywords: quality of life,readmission rates,women,psychiatric care,patient outcomes,brazil

Data availability:

Keywords: quality of life, readmission rates, women, psychiatric care, patient outcomes, brazil