Health Characteristics and Medical Service Use Patterns of Sheltered Homeless and Low-income Housed Mothers

Overview

Journal J Gen Intern Med

Publisher Springer

Specialty General Medicine

Date 1998 Jul 21

PMID 9669568

Citations 45

Authors

L WEINREB

R Goldberg

J Perloff

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objective: To compare the health characteristics and service utilization patterns of homeless women and low-income housed women who are heads of household.

Design: Case-control study.

Setting: Community of Worcester, Massachusetts.

Participants: A sample of 220 homeless mothers and 216 low-income housed mothers receiving welfare.

Measurements And Main Results: Outcome measures included health status, chronic conditions, adverse lifestyle practices, outpatient and emergency department use and hospitalization rates, and use of preventive screening measures. Both homeless mothers and housed mothers demonstrated low levels of physical and role functioning and high levels of bodily pain. Prevalence rates of asthma, anemia, and ulcer disease were high in both groups. More than half of both groups were current smokers. Compared with the housed mothers, homeless mothers reported more HIV risk behaviors. Although 90% of the homeless mothers had been screened for cervical cancer, almost one third had not been screened for tuberculosis. After controlling for potential confounding factors, the homeless mothers, compared with the housed mothers, had more frequent emergency department visits in the past year (adjusted mean, homeless vs housed, 1.41 vs .95, p = .10) and were significantly more likely to be hospitalized in the past year (adjusted odds ratio 2.22; 95% confidence interval 1.13, 4.38).

Conclusions: Both homeless mothers and low-income housed mothers had lower health status, more chronic health problems, and higher smoking rates than the general population. High rates of hospitalization, emergency department visits, and more risk behaviors among homeless mothers suggest that they are at even greater risk of adverse health outcomes. Efforts to address gaps in access to primary care and to integrate psychosocial supports with health care delivery may improve health outcomes for homeless mothers and reduce use of costly medical care services.

Citing Articles

Homelessness in the Perinatal Period and Associations With Reproductive Interconception Care: 2016-2019 Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System.

Galvin A, Lewis M, Walters S, Thompson E Public Health Rep. 2023; 139(4):458-466.

PMID: 37924255 PMC: 11284969. DOI: 10.1177/00333549231204658.

Reproductive Interconception Care Among Women Recently Pregnant and Homeless: A Qualitative Analysis.

Galvin A, Akpan I, Lewis M, Walters S, Thompson E Health Educ Behav. 2023; 51(2):302-310.

PMID: 37846846 PMC: 10981174. DOI: 10.1177/10901981231204583.

Trends, Characteristics, and Maternal Morbidity Associated With Unhoused Status in Pregnancy.

Green J, Fabricant S, Duval C, Panchal V, Cahoon S, Mandelbaum R JAMA Netw Open. 2023; 6(7):e2326352.

PMID: 37523185 PMC: 10391303. DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.26352.

Reducing hospital readmissions amongst people experiencing homelessness: a mixed-methods evaluation of a multi-disciplinary hospital in-reach programme.

Malden S, Doi L, Ng L, Cuthill F BMC Public Health. 2023; 23(1):1117.

PMID: 37308856 PMC: 10258765. DOI: 10.1186/s12889-023-16048-1.

A scoping review of psychiatric conditions associated with chronic pain in the homeless and marginally housed population.

Rintoul K, Song E, McLellan-Carich R, Schjelderup E, Barr A Front Pain Res (Lausanne). 2023; 4:1020038.

PMID: 37187857 PMC: 10175796. DOI: 10.3389/fpain.2023.1020038.

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