STATISTICAL-MODEL OF THE DURATION OF MENTAL HOSPITALIZATION - MIXED EXPONENTIAL-DISTRIBUTION

Data describing the Length of Stay in Maryland state mental hospitals of 2311 schizophrenic patients reported originally by Eaton and Whitmore (1977) were reanalyzed. When the mixed exponential distribution was fitted to the data by the method of maximum likelihood for a censored sample, it was found to provide an acceptable fit to the data in contradiction to the reported findings which employed inefficient estimation methods. The conceptual simplicity of the mixed exponential distribution recommends it as a model of mental hospital Length of Stay. © 1979, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.