The geographical distribution of psychiatric patients in the community Nijmegen — This article is an attempt to answer the question whether the geographical distribution of psychiatrie patients in the community Nijmegen is random or that certain regularities occur. An examination of the number of first admissions of psychiatric patients to two hospitals over two different periods suggests that a particular pattern emerges rather than a random distribution.
It was attempted to account for this distribution by selecting three groups of variables for each district which were then related to the percentage of hospital admissions. This analysis revealed that there is an interrelation between the structural characteristics of a district and the relative frequency of hospital admissions in that district. The demographic variables in particular turned out to play a major role in the explanation of the number of first hospital admissiins.