Table 2.
Baseline medical and psychiatric characteristics of all participants (overall) and by homeless status
| Characteristics | Overall (n=866) | Homeless Statusa
|
p-Value b | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Homeless (n=263) | Not Homeless (n=603) | |||
| Medical c | ||||
| Emergency department | ||||
| % with any use | 62.2% | 74.1% | 56.9% | <0.001 |
| Mean visits (SD) | 4.0 (4.8) | 5.7 (6.8) | 3.1 (2.8) | <0.001 |
| Median visits | 3.0 | 3.0 | 2.0 | |
| Mean cost (SD) | $2,161.35 ($2,789.18) | $2,870.01 ($3,245.44) | $1,753.97 ($2,401.59) | <0.001 |
| Median cost | $1,186.27 | $1,641.92 | $1,006.36 | |
| Outpatient medical | ||||
| % with any use | 92.0% | 90.0% | 92.8% | 0.16 |
| Mean visits (SD) | 20.6 (17.8) | 14.1 (14.1) | 23.3 (18.5) | <0.001 |
| Median visits | 16.0 | 9.0 | 19.0 | |
| Mean cost (SD) | $7,748.58 ($9,050.03) | $4,779.77 ($5,232.82) | $9,020.15 ($9,997.31) | <0.001 |
| Median cost | $5,146.03 | $3,296.69 | $6,651.70 | |
| Inpatient medical | ||||
| % with any admissions | 26.7% | 31.3% | 24.7% | 0.05 |
| Mean admissions (SD) | 1.6 (1.2) | 1.5 (1.0) | 1.7 (1.2) | 0.78 |
| Median admissions | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | |
| Mean cost (SD) | $22,531.65 ($38,692.53) | $16,972.16 ($19212.31) | $25,637.29 ($45,902.91) | 0.56 |
| Median cost | $9,507.56 | $9,749.46 | $9,390.72 | |
| No. of Chronic Illness and | 7.7 | 9.9 | 6.8 | 0.12 |
| Disability Payment System diagnosis categories | ||||
|
| ||||
| Psychiatric | ||||
| ASI Psychiatric Status composite score, mean (SD) d | 0.38 (0.24) | 0.42 (0.23) | 0.36 (0.24) | <0.001 |
| ≥1 Mental illness ICD-9 diagnosis code c | 63.8% | 59.5% | 65.8% | 0.08 |
| Prescribed medication for psychological or emotion problems, lifetime | 71.3% | 70.7% | 71.5% | 0.82 |
| Prescribed medication for psychological or emotional problems, last 30 days | 49.3% | 43.5% | 51.7% | 0.03 |
Note: Data are reported as % of participants unless otherwise indicated. Missing values are excluded from the denominator.
ASI = Addiction Severity Index; ICD-9 = International Classification of Diseases Ninth Revision; SD = Standard Deviation.
At baseline; homeless defined as spending one or more days in the previous 90 either living on the streets, in an abandoned building, in a car, or in a shelter.
Statistical tests consisted of independent sample t-tests (for continuous data with parametric distributions), Wilcoxon/Mann-Whitney tests (for continuous data with non-parametric distributions), and chi-square tests (for categorical data).
Administrative data available for 846 participants in the 1 year prior to enrollment.
ASI composite scores range from 0 to 1, with 1 indicating greatest problem severity.