The article,
“Homelessness, Health Status, and Health Care use” begins by explaining that
the affects of homelessness correlate with higher incident of health
issues. The article explains how “rates
of infectious diseases as well as chronic medical conditions have been
reported, ranging from community-acquired pneumonia, tuberculosis, and HIV to
cardiovascular disease and chronic obstructive lung disease” (Schanzer et al.,
2007). In addition, 20-40% of homeless
individuals also use the emergency department as primary source of medical
care. Due to this increase in prevalence
in diseases and hospital stay of this population; the researchers sought to
investigate health issues in newly homeless individuals that entered homeless
shelters.
This study included participants
between ages 18-65 years old that were newly homeless and were selected from 3
men’s and 3 women’s shelters in NYC. Interviews were conducted for 18 months
and questioned individuals on “ weekly timeline data relating to housing
status, service use, and criminal justice contact.” (Schanzer et al., 2007).
The results of the study demonstrated that
those who became chronic homeless individuals “had higher rates of physical and
mental illness, including substance use disorders” (Schanzer et al., 2007) than
those who found housing within 18 months.
Despite these results, researchers reported no statistical
significance. Also, newly homeless
individuals in this study showed improved health statuses, including decreases
in visual and dental complaints. Lastly,
no changes in use of health care services were noted.
Prior to reading this article, I predicted
that the homeless population investigated would have higher rates of health
care use. I thought this because of my
experience treating many of the same patients over and over again during my
time as a paramedic, but was glad to be proven otherwise. In
regards to medical ethics, I was glad autonomy was granted to these
participants. They were allowed to
participate and follow up if they so wished to and were not forced to do
anything for the sake of research. Furthermore,
by noting that these patients do not appear to use the healthcare system more
than the general population can lead to better healthcare for the
homeless. This can be done by taking
their symptoms and complaints more seriously and provide the appropriate help
they seek.
References
Schanzer, B., Dominguez, B.,
Shrout, P. E., & Caton, C. L. M. (2007). Homelessness, Health Status, and
Health Care Use. American Journal of Public Health, 97(3),
464–469. http://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2005.076190
I found this post to be very interesting. I am taking an RCC learning about people experiencing homelessness and the internationalization of it all, thus this post sparked my interest. Upon reading your post I began to search for more examples of this kind of study. I stumbled upon an journal in PubMed: Ensign, Jo. "Shelter-Based Homeless Youth." Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine 151, no. 8 (1997): 817. doi:10.1001/archpedi.1997.02170450067011. Which depicts the differences in health risk factors between street youth and sheltered youth. The risk factors for the kids on the streets vs. kids in shelters mirror what you found in your article. With this additional information, it leads me to believe that we should not only focusing on aiding all individuals experiencing homelessness, but in order to make progress and further help these people, we should focus on those on the streets due to the higher risk factors and substance/sexual abuse. By making this change, I too feel that we may be able to seriously provide more appropriate help that they seek.
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