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Table 2 Characteristics of included studies

From: The association between community mental health nursing and hospital admissions for people with serious mental illness: a systematic review

Authors

Country

Study design (duration)

Setting

Intervention

Control

Study population

Outcomes

Barr et al. [26]

England

Observational study (3 years)

Six general practices (one randomly selected practice from each health locality in an English health district)

Community mental health nurse contact with patients on the severe and enduring mental illness registers of included general practices

No contact with a community mental health nurse

N = 274

Inclusion criteria: participants with severe and enduring mental illness (SEMI), listed on the SEMI register of included general practices

Exclusion criteria: not stated

Mean age: 45.4 ± 12.2 years

Gender: not specified

Dropouts: not applicable

Admission to psychiatric hospital, frequency of community mental health nurse contacts

McCrone et al. [27], Muijen et al. [28]

England

Randomised controlled trial with two parallel arms (18 months)

Community setting within the Greenwich health authority

Community support team (comprising three community psychiatric nurses (CPNs), a team leader and four unqualified mental health workers). Each CPN acted as a care manager/client advocate. [None of the unqualified mental health workers provided services to the research group of 41 clients.]

Generic team (comprising six generic CPNs who worked independently, but were often attached to GP practices).

N = 82

Inclusion criteria: patients with a psychotic disorder (schizophrenia or affective psychosis) lasting more than 2 years, at least 2 hospital admissions in the previous 2 years, aged 18–64 years, living in the Greenwich health district

Exclusion criteria: patients with primary organic disorders

Mean age: 37 ± 11 years

Gender: 56.1% male

Dropouts: 10 (24%) patients in the intervention group and 14 (34%) patients in the control group dropped out, for the following reasons: 20 refused to participate, 2 moved away, 1 could not be found and 1 was in prison

Health service use, Global Adjustment Scale, Present State Examination, Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, Social Adjustment Scale, patient and carer satisfaction, health service costs, accommodation costs, community psychiatric nurse costs