Healthcare Usage Patterns One Year Prior to Specialized Care Admission for Common Mental Disorders

Abstract Background Common mental disorders (CMD) place significant strain on global health systems. Assessing CMD related healthcare usage is crucial for improving policies and interventions to enhance mental health and reduce the burden on specialized services. This study aimed to analyze healthcare usage in the twelve months preceding patient's first admission to specialized care for CMD in 2022. Methods We used comprehensive register data from 2021-2022 for the entire Finnish working-age population (aged 15-74 in 2022). The data covered public primary, occupational, student, and specialized care. We focused on individuals who had their first outpatient or inpatient specialized care visit for CMD in 2022, defined by ICD10 codes F32-F33 and F40-F43 (N = 43,068). We used Latent Dirichlet Allocation to reduce data dimensionality and identify distinct healthcare usage patterns. Following this, K-Means clustering was applied to group the data into clusters based on healthcare service use. Results We identified nine distinct healthcare usage patterns, each accounting for 8 − 16% of the total study population. Differences in patterns mirrored the region of residence, the type of primary care services accessed, and the frequency and the length of time primary care services were used before transitioning to specialized care. Usage of primary care services without CMD-related diagnosis was common. Conclusions The Finnish health system offers various pathways to specialized care for CMD patients, with service availability influencing primary healthcare use. To enhance mental health care, primary care services should be optimized to lessen reliance on specialized services. Additionally, service system improvements are needed to align usage differences with individual needs, ensuring equal access to necessary care. Further research is needed to examine the causal relationships between healthcare usage patterns and treatment outcomes. Key messages • Various distinct healthcare usage patterns preceding specialized care due to CMD were identified, influenced by region, type of primary care accessed, and duration and frequency of primary care usage. • Optimizing primary care services could reduce reliance on specialized care, necessitating improvements to ensure equitable access based on individual needs.