We assumed that there would be marked differences between the three hospitals in 1960, which the data concerning the total series of patients presented in Chapter 4 have obscured. The aims of the present chapter are, first, to describe the three social environments and, secondly, assuming that they do differ in important ways, to see whether there are equivalent clinical differences between the three groups of patients. We hypothesised that social poverty and clinical poverty should go together—but that, if anything, florid symptoms would be found in association with the most stimulating social conditions. Attitudes to discharge should be significantly related to length of stay at all three hospitals and there would be little difference between the three groups of patients in the proportion who wanted to leave.

AGE, LENGTH OF STAY AND OCCUPATION OF FATHERS

The composition of the three samples in respect of age and length of stay is set out in Tables 5.1 and 5.2 (p. 206).

The distributions are not significantly different at the three hospitals. However, since Mapperley tends to have more patients in the 51–60 age group, and more in the over-21 -years length-of-stay group, it will be necessary to allow for this in the subsequent analysis.

The occupation of the patients’ fathers was classified according to the system of Hall and Moser (1954), and differences between the three hospitals are shown in Table 5.3 (p. 207).