Table 3.
Primary diagnoses for emergency department visits stratified by receipt and type of homeless services, Cook County, IL
| Stable Housing | No homeless services | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | Yes | ||||||||
| N = 12,490 | N = 2712 | N = 8313 | |||||||
| n | % | Rank | n | % | Rank | n | % | Rank | |
| Primary diagnosis | |||||||||
| Prescription refill | 852 | 6.8* | 1 | 137 | 5.1 | 2 | 265 | 3.2* | 6 |
| Chest pain, unspecified | 765 | 6.1* | 2 | 201 | 7.4 | 1 | 623 | 7.5 | 1 |
| Alcohol abuse with intoxication | 652 | 5.2* | 3 | 58 | 2.1 | 10 | 403 | 4.8* | 2 |
| Administrative exam | 634 | 5.1* | 4 | 84 | 3.1 | 5 | 338 | 4.1* | 5 |
| Suicidal ideation | 571 | 4.6* | 5 | 44 | 1.6 | 12 | 364 | 4.4* | 3 |
| Asthma, unspecified | 552 | 4.4 | 6 | 123 | 4.5 | 3 | 209 | 2.5* | 7 |
| Schizophrenia or auditory hallucinations | 372 | 3.0* | 7 | 14 | 0.5 | 37 | 183 | 2.2* | 10 |
| Low back pain | 334 | 2.7 | 8 | 79 | 2.9 | 6 | 354 | 4.3* | 4 |
| Abdominal pain, unspecified | 313 | 2.5 | 9 | 72 | 2.7 | 7 | 208 | 2.5 | 8 |
| Foot pain | 287 | 2.3* | 10 | 18 | 0.7 | 28 | 185 | 2.2* | 9 |
Statistical significance testing performed using the chi-square test with stable housing set as the referent group. All comparisons were 2X2 tables; i.e., each variable across each homeless services column was cross tabulated with the referent group
*P < 0.01 for tests of statistical significance