Abstract
Schizophrenia is one of the few diseases showing similar prevalence rates in various countries. In the study an attempt was made to find out factors that result in territorial differentiation in the hospitalization of patients with schizophrenic psychoses, with an emphasis on the inpatient care accessibility. In the analyses an additive, four-year hospitalization index was used. Its distribution for the 416 territorial units (ZOZ) selected for comparisons ranged from 7.3 to 0.6. While the marginal values of the hospitalization index differed markedly (there were 12 ZOZs with definitely high hospitalization rates and 15 ZOSs representing low hospitalization levels), the distribution as a whole was characterized by small differences. In all the analyses the same tendency was found: the easier accessibility of psychiatric care, the higher the hospitalization index. Urbanization level turned out to be a factor interfering with the shape of the phenomenon. Day hospitals, functioning more often in large cities, do not seem to be an alternative to hospital treatment, but rather its continuation.