The epidemiology of the homeless population and its impact on an urban emergency department

Objectives: To characterize the homeless adult population of an urban emerg ency department (ED) and study the medical, psychiatric, and social factors that contribute to homelessness. Methods: A prospective, case-control surv ey of all homeless adult patients presenting to an urban, tertiary care ED and a random set of non-homeless controls over an eight-week period during summer 1999. Research assistants administered a 50-item questionnaire and w ere trained in assessing dentition and triceps skin-fold thickness. Inclusi on criteria: all homeless adults who consented to participate. Homelessness was defined as being present for any person not residing at a private addr ess, group home, or drug treatment program. Randomly selected controls were concurrently enrolled with a 3:1 homeless:control rate. Exclusion criteria : critically ill, injured, or incapacitated patients, or patients < 21 year s of age. Univariate analysis with appropriate statistical tests was used. The Mantel-Haenszel test was used to adjust for population differences. Res ults: Two hundred fifty-two homeless subjects and 88 controls were enrolled . Data are presented for homeless vs control patients, and all p-values wer e <0.01. Odds ratios Bolls) with 95% confidence intervals (95% Cls) are giv en where appropriate: mean age (+/- SD) = 42 +/- 10 vs 48 +/- 13; male gend er 95% vs 54% (OR = 17; 95% CI = 8 to 37); history of (hx) tuberculosis 49% vs 15% (OR = 2.5; 95% CI = 1.2 to 3); hx HIV infection 35% vs 13% (OR = 3. 8; 95% CI = 1.8 to 8); hx penetrating trauma 62% vs 16% (OR = 8.62; 95% CI = 4.4 to 17.1); hx depression 70% vs 15% (OR = 13.4; 95% CI = 6.7 to 27); h x schizophrenia 27% vs 7% (OR = 5.1; 95% CI = 2.0 to 14); hx alcoholism 81% vs 15% (OR = 24; 95% CI = 12 to 49); significant tooth loss (>3) 43% vs 18 % (OR = 3.3; 95% CI = 1.8 to 6.4); percentage of body fat 16.5% vs 19.7%; h x social isolation (no weekly social contacts) 81% vs 11% (OR = 33.3; 95% C I = 14 to 100); mean number of ED visits/year 6.0 vs 1.6. Conclusions: In t he study population homelessness was associated with a history of significa ntly higher rates of infectious disease, ethanol and substance use, psychia tric illness, social isolation, and rates of ED utilization.