The homeless are a vulnerable population with limited access to health care and poor health outcomes. Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP) analyzed deaths among homeless adults who were seen at their program from 1/1/2003 through 12/31/2008 (Baggett et al., 2014). A total of 1,302 deaths occurred during the observation period among the study population of 28,033 individuals. Mortality rates during 2003-2008 were compared to an earlier mortality study of homeless adults seen by BHCHP during 1988-1993 (Hwang et al., 1997). In the earlier cohort, there were 606 deaths among 17,292 individuals. Below are the demographic characteristics of participants in the two studies. 1988-1993 Study
N= 17,292
2003-2008 Study
N=28,033
Percent
Sex
Male
Female
68
32
66
34
Age
18-24
25-44
45-64
>=65
9
62
25
4
13
49
35
3
Race
White
Black
Hispanic
Other
45
36
17
2
43
29
19
9
1. Describe the demographic characteristics of the two study populations. Are there any meaningful differences?
2. The two studies collected only demographic data on the study participants. Suppose that you could have interviewed participants at enrollment to gather information on their illicit drug use. Exactly what information would you obtain on this behavior, and how would you summarize the data into categories for analysis? Be sure to specify your exposure and referent groups.