Health care access and utilization in older versus younger homeless adults.
OBJECTIVE
To examine whether demographic characteristics, health care access, and acute health care utilization differ by age among homeless adults.


METHODS
We interviewed all 2,175 adult attendees of a citywide homeless outreach event.


RESULTS
Older participants were more likely than younger participants to have a regular place for health care (59.8% vs. 44.3%, p<.01), a regular health care provider (53.6% vs. 35.6%, p<.01), and health insurance (45.5% vs. 32.1%, p<.01). Older participants were less likely to be unable to obtain needed health care (15.6% vs. 20.9%, p=.05). In a multivariate analysis, only lack of health insurance predicted inability to obtain needed care (AOR 2.9, CI 1.76-4.8).


CONCLUSIONS
Older and younger homeless adults have similarly high rates of acute health care utilization. The better access to care among older homeless adults speaks to the importance of insurance in determining access to care among homeless adults.
Brown
Rebecca T
RT
Division of Gerontology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, USA. rtbrown@bidmc.harvard.edu
Kimes
Ryan V
RV
Guzman
David
D
Kushel
Margot
M
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006703:Ill-Housed Persons / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires