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. 1992 Oct;82(10):1394–1398. doi: 10.2105/ajph.82.10.1394

The medical origins of homelessness.

M A Winkleby 1, B Rockhill 1, D Jatulis 1, S P Fortmann 1
PMCID: PMC1695873  PMID: 1415869

Abstract

In 1989 through 1990, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of 1437 homeless adults in northern California (98% response rate). Prevalences of alcohol abuse, illegal drug use, and psychiatric hospitalization when adults first became homeless were 15% to 33% lower than prevalences following homelessness. The largest differences between the homeless and a comparison group of 3122 nonhomeless adults were for psychiatric hospitalization (odds ratios [ORs] of 4.6 for men and 5.9 for women) and alcohol abuse (ORs of 2.3 for men and 4.0 for women). However, when prehomeless prevalences of addictive and psychiatric disorders were compared with prevalences among the nonhomeless, absolute differences were no greater than 12%.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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