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WEDNESDAY, Aug. 8, 2018 (HealthDay News) — Mortality rates for unsheltered homeless adults are higher than those for the general adult population and sheltered homeless adults, according to a study published online July 30 in JAMA Internal Medicine<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Jill S. Roncarati, Sc.D., from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues assessed the mortality rates and causes of death for a prospective cohort of 445 unsheltered homeless adults (mean age 44 years; 72.4 percent male; 67.2 percent non-Hispanic white) from Boston. The study data was linked to the death occurrence files by using a probabilistic record linkage program.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that over 10 years of follow-up (2000 to 2009), 134 individuals died, with a mean age at death of 53 years. For the unsheltered cohort the all-cause mortality rate was almost 10 times higher than that of the Massachusetts population and nearly three times higher than that of a sheltered homeless cohort. Non-Hispanic black individuals had more than half the rate of death compared with non-Hispanic white individuals, with a rate ratio of 0.4 (P < 0.001). The most common causes of death were noncommunicable diseases (e.g., cancer and heart disease), alcohol use disorder, and chronic liver disease.<\/p>\n
“This study suggests that this distinct subpopulation of homeless people merits special attention to meet their unique clinical and psychosocial needs,” the authors write.<\/p>\n
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