Table 2 Characteristics of the 1184 surviving and 993 deceased patients with schizophrenia under care at Taipei Veterans’ General Hospital Yuli Branch in Taiwan from 1998 to 2008

Demography

 Age, Mean ± SD^a

69.22 ± 10.46

48.79 ± 15.38

 Male

934

94.1

844

71.3

 Marital status

  Unmarried

833

83.9

1047

88.4

  Married

126

12.7

51

4.3

  Widow

7

0.7

64

5.4

  Divorced

27

2.7

22

1.9

 Social welfare^b

  Veterans

912

91.8

573

48.4

  Relatives of veterans

62

6.2

438

37.0

  Low-income

11

1.1

103

8.7

  General

8

0.8

70

5.9

 Census registration

  Hospital^c

749

75.4

319

26.9

  Non-Hospital

244

24.6

865

73.1

Psychiatric history

 Hospitalization duration in the initial follow-up (years), Median, 25–75 percentile^a

2.8, 2.0–17.9

2.8, 2.0–6.4

 Duration of mental illness, Median, 25–75 percentile^a

9.9, 5.7–22.3

13.9, 13.0–17.4

 Other combined psychiatric diagnoses

29

2.9

51

4.3

 Participation in sheltered or supported employment

50

5.0

276

23.3

Physical comorbidity (ICD9)

804

81.0

697

58.9

 Diseases of the respiratory system (460–519)

455

45.8

220

18.6

 Diseases of the digestive system (520–579)

328

33.0

297

25.1

 Symptoms, signs, and ill-defined conditions (780–799)

223

22.5

200

16.9

 Diseases of the genitourinary system (580–629)

215

21.7

115

9.7

 Infectious and parasitic disease (001-139)

194

19.5

101

8.5

 Diseases of the circulatory system (390–459)

178

17.8

104

8.8

 Diseases of the skin and subcutaneous tissue (680–709)

178

17.9

178

15.0

 Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases, and immunity disorders (240–279)

107

10.8

92

7.8

 Neoplasms (140–239)

78

7.9

28

2.4

 Diseases of the nervous and sensory organs (320–389)

69

7.0

44

3.7

 Diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue (710–739)

57

5.7

62

5.2

 Diseases of the blood and blood-forming organs (280–289)

39

3.9

25

2.1