OBJECTIVES: The role of competing priorities as a barrier to the utilization of physical health services was assessed in a subset (n = 363) of a probability sample of homeless adults in Los Angeles. METHODS: Unadjusted odds of four measures of health services utilization were calculated for those with frequent difficulty in meeting their subsistence needs. These odds were then adjusted for a range of characteristics assumed to affect the utilization of health services among the homeless. RESULTS: Before and after adjustment, those with frequent subsistence difficulty were less likely to have a regular source of care (odds ratio [OR] = 0.30, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.16, 0.53) and more likely to have gone without needed medical care (OR = 1.77, 95% CI = 1.04, 3.00). Subsistence difficulty had no impact on the likelihood of having an outpatient visit or having been hospitalized. Conclusions remained the same after adjustment. CONCLUSIONS: Frequent subsistence difficulty appears to be an important nonfinancial barrier to the utilization of health services perceived as discretionary among homeless adults.

Background:We compared access to health care, use of services, and health care experiences for Mexicans and other Latinos by citizenship and immigrant authorization status.

In this first population-based study of lesbian and bisexual women's health, we found that lesbians and bisexual women were more likely than heterosexual women to have poor health behaviors and worse access to health care. These findings support our hypothesis that sexual orientation has an independent effect on health behaviors and receipt of care, and indicate the need for the increased systematic study of the relationship between sexual orientation and various aspects of health and health care. Arch Fam Med. 2000;9:1043-1051

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OLITICAL VIOLENCE IS INCREASingly recognized as a threat to public health and includes many types of violence such as war, torture, forced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings. 1-3 Much research on the long-term health consequences of political violence has focused on torture and not on the wider problem of political violence experienced by immigrants and refugees. 4,5-8 This is especially pertinent to immigrants from Mexico, Central America, and South America, who experienced war-related violence and political violence (including forced disappearance of family members and witnessing a massacre 9) during the wars, military repressions, guerrilla insurgencies, and human rights abuses of the 1970s to the present. Prior studies examining the impact of torture and related violence have limited relevance to US-based populations of immigrants and refugees and to primary care clinicians practicing in the United States. These studies focused mainly on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression 10-13 ; were performed among asylum seekers, 14 refugees living in refugee camps Author Affiliations are listed at the end of this article.

We applied the Gelberg-Andersen Behavioral Model for Vulnerable Populations to predict health services utilization (HSU) in 875 homeless US women. Structural models assessed the impact of predisposing (demographics, psychological distress, alcohol/drug problems, homelessness severity), enabling (health insurance, source of care, barriers) and need (illness) variables on HSU (preventive care, outpatient visits, hospitalizations). Homelessness severity predicted illness, barriers and less insurance. Distress predicted more barriers, illness and less outpatient HSU. Drug problems predicted hospitalizations. Barriers predicted more illness and less outpatient HSU. Health and homelessness indicators were worse for White women. Better housing, access to care and insurance would encourage appropriate HSU.

Homelessness is an escalating national problem and women are disproportionately affected. Nevertheless, few studies have focused on the special circumstances associated with being a homeless woman. For instance, while both genders experience serious barriers to obtaining health care, homeless women face an additional burden by virtue of their sexual and reproductive health needs. The current study was conducted as the first stage of a qualitative/quantitative investigation of homeless women's access and barriers to family planning and women's health care. We interviewed 47 homeless women of diverse ages and ethnic backgrounds. A qualitative approach was initially taken to explore the factors homeless women themselves perceive as barriers to their use of birth control and women's health services, and factors they believe would facilitate their use. Key findings are that health is not a priority for homeless women, that transportation and scheduling can be particularly burdensome for homeless women, and that being homeless leads some to feel stigmatized by health care providers. Despite being homeless, having children was extremely important to the women in our study. At the same time, those interested in contraception confronted significant barriers in their efforts to prevent pregnancies. We conclude with suggested interventions that would make general, gynecological, and reproductive health care more accessible to homeless women.

Homeless women experience extensive health risks including physical and sexual victimization. Few studies that have gathered information on homeless persons have reported results separately for women or have compared them directly with men. Research that both investigates antecedents of victimization among homeless women and compares them to those for men is necessary to determine whether prevention efforts must be different for each group. We investigated potential antecedents of recent (past 30 days) physical and sexual victimization in a probability sample of 394 homeless women and compared findings to those for 1159 homeless men. As hypothesized, mental disorder, substance dependence, and engaging in economic survival strategies significantly predicted victimization among homeless women. With few dissimilarities, these characteristics also predicted victimization among homeless men. Although differences in the needs and experiences of homeless women and men must be recognized, both women and men require assistance to establish and maintain safe residences, treatment of any substance use and mental disorder, and alternatives to economic survival strategies that place them at risk for victimization.