TY - JOUR
T1 - Brief report
T2 - The aging of the homeless population: Fourteen-year trends in San Francisco
AU - Hahn, Judith A.
AU - Kushel, Margot B.
AU - Bangsberg, David R.
AU - Riley, Elise
AU - Moss, Andrew R.
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This study was funded by NIH 5R01DA004363, 1R01MH054907, R01DA010164, K08HS11415, and The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. All the work in this study was conducted independently of the NIH and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
PY - 2006
Y1 - 2006
N2 - BACKGROUND: Homelessness is associated with high rates of health and substance use problems. OBJECTIVE: To examine trends in the age, housing, health status, health service utilization, and drug use of the homeless population over a 14-year period. DESIGN: Serial cross-sectional. PARTICIPANTS: We studied 3,534 literally homeless adults recruited at service providers in San Francisco in 4 waves: 1990-1994, 1996-1998, 1999-2000, and 2003. MEASUREMENTS: Age, time homeless, self-reported chronic conditions, hospital and emergency department utilization, and drug and alcohol use. RESULTS: The median age of the homeless increased from 37 to 46 over the study waves, at a rate of 0.66 years per calendar year (P < .01). The median total time homeless increased from 12 to 39.5 months (P < .01). Emergency department visits, hospital admissions, and chronic health conditions increased. CONCLUSIONS: The homeless population is aging by about two thirds of a year every calendar year, consistent with trends in several other cities. It is likely that the homeless are static, aging population cohort. The aging trends suggest that chronic conditions will become increasingly prominent for homeless health services. This will present challenges to traditional approaches to screening, prevention, and treatment of chronic diseases in an aging homeless population.
AB - BACKGROUND: Homelessness is associated with high rates of health and substance use problems. OBJECTIVE: To examine trends in the age, housing, health status, health service utilization, and drug use of the homeless population over a 14-year period. DESIGN: Serial cross-sectional. PARTICIPANTS: We studied 3,534 literally homeless adults recruited at service providers in San Francisco in 4 waves: 1990-1994, 1996-1998, 1999-2000, and 2003. MEASUREMENTS: Age, time homeless, self-reported chronic conditions, hospital and emergency department utilization, and drug and alcohol use. RESULTS: The median age of the homeless increased from 37 to 46 over the study waves, at a rate of 0.66 years per calendar year (P < .01). The median total time homeless increased from 12 to 39.5 months (P < .01). Emergency department visits, hospital admissions, and chronic health conditions increased. CONCLUSIONS: The homeless population is aging by about two thirds of a year every calendar year, consistent with trends in several other cities. It is likely that the homeless are static, aging population cohort. The aging trends suggest that chronic conditions will become increasingly prominent for homeless health services. This will present challenges to traditional approaches to screening, prevention, and treatment of chronic diseases in an aging homeless population.
KW - Aging
KW - Chronic health
KW - Health service utilization
KW - Homeless
KW - Substance use
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U2 - 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2006.00493.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2006.00493.x
M3 - Article
C2 - 16808781
AN - SCOPUS:33745669700
SN - 0884-8734
VL - 21
SP - 775
EP - 778
JO - Journal of general internal medicine
JF - Journal of general internal medicine
IS - 7
ER -