Health & Healthcare: All Related Resources

Injury is a leading cause of hospitalization in people experiencing homelessness, yet post-injury care use is unknown. This study examines care use patterns in the 12 months after injury in people experiencing homelessness versus housed low-income Medicaid beneficiaries.

People experiencing homelessness have lower rates of cancer screening than housed people, contributing to later stages of cancer diagnosis and poor outcomes. We examined whether gaining housing increased rates of cancer screening in a cohort of homeless veterans. This study of nearly 120,000 homeless veterans finds that gaining housing was linked to higher screening rates for both breast and colorectal cancer—key to detecting cancer earlier, reducing the need for emergency surgery, and saving lives.

Globally, tobacco use causes 8.7 million deaths annually. Approximately 50 % of formerly homeless adults in permanent supportive housing (PSH) in the United States smoke cigarettes. Secondhand smoke exposure is high in the absence of smoke-free policies. There is a need to understand attitudes toward smoke-free policies and factors associated with smoke-free home adoption attempts among PSH residents.

People experiencing homelessness have significantly lower life expectancies than the general population, and among those aged ≥ 45, tobacco-related illnesses are the leading cause of death.[1] Compared to the general population, tobacco use among people experiencing homelessness is six times higher, and the quit ratio (ratio of former to ever-smokers) is five times lower. [2],[3] We used the largest representative study of people experiencing homelessness since the 1990s to estimate tobacco use prevalence and its association with shelter status, behavioral health, and health services use among adults experiencing homelessness in California to identify opportunities to address unmet tobacco treatment needs.