Introduction: Early psychiatric rehospitalization is defined as the readmission within the first three months after discharge.
Objective: To determine risk factors for early rehospitalization through the evaluation of two scenarios: readmission within three months and within one month post-discharge.
Materials and methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted including 214 patients attending a psychiatric hospital in Bogotá. The follow-up included one year post discharge. A total of 311 hospitalization events were analyzed. GEE models for longitudinal data were used to deal with repeated measures in the statistical analysis.
Results: Using the three-month criteria, early rehospitalization was found in 49.5% of 311 hospitalization events, while the one-month criteria was found in 31% of them. The three-month model showed that marital status (divorced-separated), diagnosis of substances use disorder, diagnosis related to medical condition and discharge produced by remission are factors associated with the outcome. The one-month model showed that male gender and domestic partnership act as protective factors.
Conclusion: In this sample, early rehospitalization is a frequent phenomenon. Factors strongly associated are related to psychosocial support, medical comorbidity, psychoactive substances use disorders and remission to a different hospital.