ArticleJournal of multidisciplinary healthcare2025
Assessing Mental Illness Referral Request Acceptance: A Nationwide E-Referral Data From Saudi Arabia.
Article in Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Healthcare Access Through Digital Coordination: A Nationwide Analysis of Obstetrics and Gynecology E-Referral Patterns in Saudi Arabia.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Characteristics of pediatric e-referrals through SMARC system: a two-year national analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background and Objective: Mental disorders significantly impact quality of life and life expectancy, representing a leading cause of global disease burden. Healthcare systems worldwide face challenges in meeting mental health service demands, particularly due to specialist shortages and geographical barriers. Saudi Arabia has implemented an innovative nationwide electronic referral system (SMARC) as part of its digital health transformation strategy to enhance mental healthcare accessibility. This study examined SMARC's effectiveness in facilitating mental health service access by analyzing patient transfer acceptance rates between healthcare facilities and identifying factors influencing these rates. Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study analyzed 9722 mental health electronic referrals within SMARC from January 2020 to December 2021. Descriptive statistics characterized referral patterns, while bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses identified factors associated with referral acceptance, calculating adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals. Results: The system achieved an overall acceptance rate of 82.5%, with different patterns across age groups and regions. Lower acceptance rates were observed for ages 15-25 years (aOR = 0.84; 95% CI = 0.70-0.99) and 46-65 years (aOR = 0.83; 95% CI = 0.70-0.99) compared to ages 26-35 years. Life-saving referrals showed the highest acceptance (aOR = 2.60; 95% CI = 1.51-4.48), while psychiatrist availability significantly influenced acceptance rates (aOR = 1.36; 95% CI = 1.17-1.58). External referrals were half as likely to be accepted as internal ones (aOR = 0.51; 95% CI = 0.42-0.64). Conclusion: SMARC demonstrates effectiveness in optimizing mental healthcare access through strategic matching of patient needs with available resources. The system's selective acceptance patterns reflect its capability to prioritize care based on clinical urgency and resource availability. These findings provide valuable insights for policymakers to keep enhancing digital health infrastructure and mental healthcare delivery. The SMARC model offers a promising framework for implementing similar digital referral systems globally to improve mental healthcare coordination and accessibility.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.