Am J Public Health. 2013 Dec;103 Suppl 2:S294-301. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2013.301369. Epub 2013 Oct 22.
A comprehensive assessment of health care utilization among homeless adults under a system of universal health insurance.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES:
We comprehensively assessed health care utilization in a population-based sample of homeless adults and matched controls under a universal health insurance system.
METHODS:
We assessed health care utilization by 1165 homeless single men and women and adults in families and their age- and gender-matched low-income controls in Toronto, Ontario, from 2005 to 2009, using repeated-measures general linear models to calculate risk ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
RESULTS:
Homeless participants had mean rates of 9.1 ambulatory care encounters (maximum = 141.1), 2.0 emergency department (ED) encounters (maximum = 104.9), 0.2 medical-surgical hospitalizations (maximum = 14.9), and 0.1 psychiatric hospitalizations per person-year (maximum = 4.8). Rate ratios for homeless participants compared with matched controls were 1.76 (95% CI = 1.58, 1.96) for ambulatory care encounters, 8.48 (95% CI = 6.72, 10.70) for ED encounters, 4.22 (95% CI = 2.99, 5.94) for medical-surgical hospitalizations, and 9.27 (95% CI = 4.42, 19.43) for psychiatric hospitalizations.
CONCLUSIONS:
In a universal health insurance system, homeless people had substantially higher rates of ED and hospital use than general population controls; these rates were largely driven by a subset of homeless persons with extremely high-intensity usage of health services.
- PMID:
- 24148051
- [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
- PMCID:
- PMC3969141
- [Available on 2014/12/1]
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