As many as 4 million Europeans and 3•5 million Americans experience homelessness every year, and the numbers are rising. Homeless people "are the sickest in our society," but just treating ill health might not be enough to help get people off the streets, according to a new two-part Series on homelessness in high-income countries, published inThe Lancet.
The Series highlights that being homeless is not only bad for your physical and mental health but also has dramatic effects on life expectancy. Rates of tuberculosis infection, for example, are at least 20 times higher in the homeless population than the general population [page 5, table 2], while rates of depression are up to seven times higher in the homeless population and similar to levels of psychosis.
Homeless people are also two to five times more likely to die prematurely than the general population, especially from suicide and unintentional injuries. However, despite an expansion of services, this increased risk of death has remained similar over the past 20 years.
"Homeless people are the sickest in our society. The evidence on disease rates is very concerning not only for drug and alcohol abuse but also for a range of infectious diseases, heart disease and other age-related chronic conditions, and mental health disorders. The evidence shows that homeless people are old decades before the rest of the population because of their poor health," says Seena Fazel, lead author of the first paper and Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at the University of Oxford in the UK.
Across the European Union 400,000 individuals, and in the USA 600,000 people, are homeless on any given night. Figures from the past 5 years suggest that the number of homeless people is continuing to rise, and the number of children and families who are homeless has increased substantially. Therefore, the importance of tackling this issue is greater than ever, say the authors.
[For more of this story go to http://www.sciencedaily.com/re.../10/141023193421.htm]
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