FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH NON-ATTENDANCE TO OUTPATIENT CONSULTATION-LIAISON PSYCHIATRY APPOINTMENTS: A RETROSPECTIVE COHORT STUDY.

BACKGROUND: Non-attendance to outpatient mental health appointments is associated with adverse clinical and financial outcomes. The aim of this study was to investigate the rates of non-attendance to outpatient Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (CLP) appointments and the factors associated with non-attendance. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Retrospective cohort study, including two groups of data: 950 initial and 3503 follow-up appointments between 01/01/2015 and 31/12/2019. We employed descriptive statistics, parametric/non-parametric tests and logistic regression analysis. We used a range of environmental, socio-demographic and service-related characteristics as independent parameters and non-attendance as the dependent parameter. RESULTS: Initial and follow-up non-attendance rates were 27.5% and 18.8% respectively. Opting-out text message reminders was associated with both initial and follow-up non-attendance. Higher education was associated with initial non-attendance, whereas lower education with follow-up non-attendance. Other factors associated with non-attendance to initial appointments were: English being the participant's primary communication language, having an appointment with a psychiatrist as opposed to a trained nurse or Cognitive Behavioural Therapist, and longer waiting time. Follow-up non-attendance was also associated with younger age, shorter driving distance and higher income/employment. CONCLUSION: We suggest that improving opt-in rates through a combination of staff and patient education and promotion, improving waiting lists, reducing the stigma associated with seeing a psychiatrist, but also perhaps targeting different socio-economic groups of patients with different strategies should be the focus of policy making to tackle non-attendance. Further research into patient-related and environmental factors, such as day of the week, driving distance, language of primary communication, education, income and employment is warranted in order to design more effective policies and improve engagement with CLP, but also psychiatric services in general.