Introduction: To determine the relationship between housing instability, economic standing, and access to health care and use of acute care services.

Methods: We performed a meta-regression using four nationally representative surveys. The independent variable was an ordered measure of economic and housing instability: 1) the general population, 2) low-income population, 3) never homeless users-of-subsistence-services, 4) unstably housed, 5) formerly homeless, and 6) the actively homeless. Dependent variables were four measures of health care access and three measures of acute health care utilization.

Results: Worsening housing instability and economic standing was associated with poorer access: being uninsured (5.4% per unit increase, 95% CI 1.7-9.2%, p=.011), postponing needed care (3.3%, 95% CI 1.9-4.7%, p=.001), postponing medications (6.1%, 95% CI 1.5-10.6%, p=.035), and with one measure of acute health care utilization: higher hospitalization rates (2.9%, 95% CI 1.2-4.6%, p=.008).

Discussion: Economic and housing instability should be considered a graded risk factor for poor access to health care.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/hpu.0.0068DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

health care
24
housing instability
20
instability economic
12
economic standing
12
care
8
care access
8
access health
8
economic housing
8
acute health
8
health
6

Similar Publications

Exploring the decisional needs of patients living with subacromial pain syndrome: A qualitative needs assessment study.

Musculoskelet Sci Pract

January 2025

Center for General Practice, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark; Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark. Electronic address:

Background: There are a variety of different treatments for patients living with subacromial pain syndrome (SAPS). All treatments have small to moderate effect sizes, and it is challenging when healthcare practitioners and patients need to decide on which treatment options to choose. The aim of this study was to explore and understand the decisional needs of patients with SAPS, to inform and support the decision-making process.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Telephone follow-up on Medicare patient surveys remains critical.

Am J Manag Care

January 2025

RAND, 1776 Main St, Santa Monica, CA 90401. Email:

Objectives: Patient experience surveys are essential to measuring patient-centered care, a key component of health care quality. Low response rates in underserved groups may limit their representation in overall measure performance and hamper efforts to assess health equity. Telephone follow-up improves response rates in many health care settings, yet little recent work has examined this for surveys of Medicare enrollees, including those with Medicare Advantage.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Association between screening for suspected COVID-19 cases and outcomes of patients revisiting the emergency department.

Am J Manag Care

January 2025

Institute of Health Policy and Management and Master of Public Health Program, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, No. 17 Xu-Zhou Road, Taipei 100, Taiwan. Email:

Objectives: Patients who revisit the emergency department (ED) shortly after discharge are a high-risk group for complications and death, and these revisits may have been seriously affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Detecting suspected COVID-19 cases in EDs is resource intensive. We examined the associations of screening workload for suspected COVID-19 cases with in-hospital mortality and intensive care unit (ICU) admission during short-term ED revisits.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cancellations in primary care in the Veterans Affairs Health Care System.

Am J Manag Care

January 2025

Health Economics Resource Center, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, 795 Willow Rd, Menlo Park, CA 94025. Email:

Objectives: Unused medical appointments affect both patient care and clinic operations, and the frequency of cancellations due to clinic reasons is underreported. The prevalence of these unused appointments in primary care in the Veterans Affairs Health Care System (VA) is unknown. This study examined the prevalence of unused primary care appointments and compared the relative frequency of cancellations and no-shows for patient and clinic reasons.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Effects of individualized nurse-led care plans on olaparib treatment duration.

Am J Manag Care

January 2025

Arine, 595 Market St #2550, San Francisco, CA 94105. Email:

Objective: To assess the effects of a nurse-led personalized care plan on the duration of olaparib therapy among patients with cancer.

Study Design: Cohort study conducted from January 2020 to June 2022.

Methods: Data from an independent specialty pharmacy were used to identify patients 18 years and older with at least 1 olaparib (Lynparza) prescription who were at high risk for olaparib nonadherence as assessed using a pharmacy intake survey.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!