title: Health status of people undergoing foreclosure in the Philadelphia region.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We assessed the health status of people undergoing mortgage foreclosure in the Philadelphia region to determine if there was a relationship between foreclosure and health.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were recruited in partnership with a mortgage counseling agency. Participants' health status and health care use were compared with a community sample from the 2008 Southeastern Pennsylvania Household Health Survey. We used publicly filed foreclosure records to assess response bias.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 250 people recruited, 36.7% met screening criteria for major depression. The foreclosure sample was significantly more likely than the community sample to not have insurance coverage (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.28; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.49, 3.48) and to not have filled a prescription because of cost in the preceding year (AOR = 3.44; 95% CI = 2.45, 4.83). Approximately 9% of the participants reported that their own or a family member's medical condition was the primary reason they were undergoing foreclosure. More than a quarter of those in foreclosure (27.7%) stated that they owed money to medical creditors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Foreclosure affects already-vulnerable populations. Public health practitioners may be able to leverage current efforts to connect homeowners with mortgage counseling agencies to improve health care access.
authors.affiliation: Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program and Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. cpollack@rand.org
authors.forename: Craig Evan
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Pollack
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lynch
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology; D004467:Economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006798:Housing / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016017:Odds Ratio; D015143:Philadelphia; D011594:Psychometrics; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
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