A study published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, “Adults with Housing Insecurity Have Worse Access to Primary and Preventive Care,” found that adults with housing insecurity were more likely to lack sources of healthcare, to delay preventive-care check-ups, and to have poorer health. Housing insecure adults were more likely to be women, minorities, singles, middle-aged, and low-income.
Among 228,131 adult participants in the 2011 to 2015 Behavioral Risk-Factor Surveillance Survey, 14.3% reported housing insecurity, defined as always or usually being worried during the past 12 months about having enough money to pay the rent or mortgage. Respondents with housing insecurity were more likely to report chronic diseases and have more days of poor physical or mental health. Housing insecure adults were three times more likely than those who were housing secure to delay care due to cost, have 35% higher odds of delaying annual check-ups, and have 19% higher odds of not having a usual source of care.
The authors suggest that poor health may be a consequence of lacking primary and preventative care. They note that screening patients about their social determinants of health, including housing insecurity, can improve patient care by better informing providers of those factors and can generate other community referrals, including to providers of housing vouchers and other assistance. They also cite the need for a clearer standard for measuring housing insecurity.
“Adults with Housing Insecurity Have Worse Access to Primary and Preventative Care” is available at: https://bit.ly/2YpM7kT