Observational studyThe International journal of social psychiatry2025
An observational study of socioeconomic disparities in psychiatry consultation uptake in Australia, using routinely collected national data from 2015 to 2022.
Observational study in The International journal of social psychiatry, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Disparities in mental health service use in Australia: Analysis of the National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing (2020-2022).The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry · 2026Review
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic was associated with increased psychological distress and psychiatric service usage in Australia. Previous research into the first few months of the pandemic found severe inequality in telehealth psychiatry but no change in inequality for psychiatry service usage overall. However, it is unknown how inequality evolved over the remainder of the pandemic, as extended lockdowns continued in major Australian cities.
aimsTo understand how socioeconomic inequality in psychiatric consultations changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, using new data from 2020 to 2022.
methodsWe analysed routinely collected national Medicare data, provided to us as service counts per Statistical Area 3 (SA3) region by financial year from 2015 to 2016 to 2021 to 2022. We calculated daily rates of psychiatry attendances per 100,000 working age adults within each SA3 region, and we evaluated inequality in the distribution of consults using concentration indices and curves based on the Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD).
resultsWe analysed 7 years of Medicare data from 321 SA3 regions. The national consultation rate increased in 2020 to 2021 from 45.16 to 50.17, and then decreased slightly in 2021 to 22 to 48.65. Inequality as measured by concentration indices rose from 0.169 in 2020 to 2021 to 0.177 in 2021 to 2022. Consultation rates in the most disadvantaged IRSD quintile decreased by 15.9% in 2021 to 2022 compared to smaller decreases of between 1% and 4% in the top 4 quintiles.
conclusionOur study shows that inequality in mental health service provision increased in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic to the highest level seen in the 7 years of data we analysed. Individuals within the most disadvantaged IRSD quintile experienced a significant and disproportionate decline in service rates. Close monitoring and more granular data are needed to understand the drivers behind this inequity and its current status, and to inform interventions to improve it.
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