Unstable housing is linked to a greater likelihood for diabetes-related emergency department visits and hospitalization, according to a study published in Diabetes Care.
Researchers examined data from the 2014 Health Center Patient Survey, a nationally representative survey of patients who receive care at federally funded safety-net health centers, to determine if unstable housing was linked to a risk for diabetes-related ED visits or inpatient hospitalization.
Unstable housing was defined as not being able to pay rent or mortgage, moving two or more times in the past year or staying somewhere one does not own or rent.
Here are three findings from the study.
1. In all, 37 percent of the 1,087 cases examined were unstably housed.
2. The researchers found 13.7 percent of patients had a diabetes-related ED visit or hospitalization in the last 12 months. After adjusting for multiple confounding variables, which may cause inaccurate analysis, the researchers found unstable housing was correlated with increased odds of diabetes-related ED use or hospitalization.
3. Care centers provided patients help with housing for only 0.9 percent of those with unstable housing.