Factors affecting the use of medical, mental health, alcohol, and drug treatment services by homeless adults. 1990

D Padgett, and E L Struening, and H Andrews
School of Social Work, New York University, NY 10003.

This study describes use of medical, mental health, alcohol, and drug services by 832 adult residents of the New York City homeless shelter system and examines associations between service use during the past three months and an array of predisposing, enabling, and need factors. Utilization rates were 23% for medical services, 13% for mental health services, and 10 and 7.5% for alcohol and drug treatment services, respectively. Service contacts were more often hospitals than ambulatory care clinics. Logistic regression analyses revealed that need factors were stronger predictors of all four types of service use. Predisposing factors other than education and black ethnic status were not significant, and the enabling factor of enrollment in Medicaid and/or Medicare was significant only for use of medical and drug services. Among the need factors, measures of mental health status were analyzed as indices of distress to test a stress-utilization model of prediction for all four types of service use. While these measures did not predict use of nonmental health services, physical health problems were associated with use of all four types of services. Implications for future health services research and for service delivery to the homeless are discussed, including the need for more information on availability of services and on psychosocial and cultural characteristics of homeless persons that may affect their help-seeking behavior.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008297 Male Males
D008875 Middle Aged An adult aged 45 - 64 years. Middle Age
D009519 New York City City located at the mouth of the Hudson River, in New York State.
D003153 Community Health Services Diagnostic, therapeutic and preventive health services provided for individuals in the community. Community Health Care,Community Healthcare,Health Services, Community,Services, Community Health,Community Health Service,Health Care, Community,Health Service, Community,Healthcare, Community,Service, Community Health
D003156 Community Mental Health Services Diagnostic, therapeutic and preventive mental health services provided for individuals in the community. Community Mental Health Service,Mental Health Services, Community,Assertive Community Treatment,Health Services, Community Mental,Services, Community Mental Health,Services, Mental Health Community,Community Treatment, Assertive,Treatment, Assertive Community
D005260 Female Females
D006297 Health Services Accessibility The degree to which individuals are inhibited or facilitated in their ability to gain entry to and to receive care and services from the health care system. Factors influencing this ability include geographic, architectural, transportational, and financial considerations, among others. Access To Care, Health,Access to Care,Access to Contraception,Access to Health Care,Access to Health Services,Access to Medications,Access to Medicines,Access to Therapy,Access to Treatment,Accessibility of Health Services,Availability of Health Services,Contraception Access,Contraceptive Access,Medication Access,Accessibility, Health Services,Contraceptive Availability,Health Services Geographic Accessibility,Program Accessibility,Access to Cares,Access to Contraceptions,Access to Medication,Access to Medicine,Access to Therapies,Access to Treatments,Access, Contraception,Access, Contraceptive,Access, Medication,Accessibilities, Health Services,Accessibility, Program,Availability, Contraceptive,Care, Access to,Cares, Access to,Contraception, Access to,Contraceptive Accesses,Health Services Availability,Medication Accesses,Medication, Access to,Medicine, Access to,Medicines, Access to,Therapy, Access to,Treatment, Access to
D006301 Health Services Needs and Demand Health services required by a population or community as well as the health services that the population or community is able and willing to pay for. Health Services Needs,Needs,Needs and Demand, Health Services,Target Population,Health Services Need,Need, Health Services,Needs, Health Services,Population, Target,Populations, Target,Target Populations
D006302 Health Services Research The integration of epidemiologic, sociological, economic, and other analytic sciences in the study of health services. Health services research is usually concerned with relationships between need, demand, supply, use, and outcome of health services. The aim of the research is evaluation, particularly in terms of structure, process, output, and outcome. (From Last, Dictionary of Epidemiology, 2d ed) Health Care Research,Medical Care Research,Research, Health Services,Action Research,Health Services Evaluation,Healthcare Research,Research, Medical Care,Evaluation, Health Services,Evaluations, Health Services,Health Services Evaluations,Research, Action,Research, Health Care,Research, Healthcare
D006304 Health Status The level of health of the individual, group, or population as subjectively assessed by the individual or by more objective measures. General Health,General Health Level,General Health Status,Level of Health,Overall Health,Overall Health Status,General Health Levels,Health Level,Health Level, General,Health Levels,Health Status, General,Health Status, Overall,Health, General,Health, Overall,Level, General Health,Levels, General Health,Status, General Health,Status, Health,Status, Overall Health

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