Health equity
Discrimination in care for homeless adults
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
Among homeless adults with mental illness, perceived healthcare discrimination—especially for mental illness/poverty—linked to worse symptoms and more ED use.
Study at a glance
- Design
- Cross-sectional — Baseline analysis from Toronto At Home/Chez Soi Housing First trial sample
- N
- N=550 · Final analytic sample with baseline interviews
- Population
- Homeless adults with mental illness at the Toronto At Home/Chez Soi site
- Outcome
- Past-year perceived discrimination in healthcare and associations with ED use
Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.
Key findings
42% reported any discrimination; mental illness/substance use (33%) and homelessness/poverty (30%) were most common; discrimination associated with greater lifetime substance/mental severity and more frequent ED use.
Methodology
Using Toronto At Home/Chez Soi baseline data, researchers measured past-year perceived discrimination in healthcare and associations with mental health, substance use, and emergency department use.
Limitations
Causal direction (discrimination vs illness severity) and whether anti-discrimination interventions reduce ED use.
How this study connects
Role on claims
Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.
Multiple studies in this library examine health equity with empirical patient or population outcomes rather than opinion alone.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
42% reported any discrimination; mental illness/substance use (33%) and homelessness/poverty (30%) were most common; discrimination associated with greater lifetime substance/mental severity and more frequent ED use.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Effect sizes and settings differ across health equity studies — digital vs clinic, trial vs observational — so results should not be pooled casually.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Open questions
Tensions this paper is part of
From concept pages' “where studies disagree.” Disagreement means the same question; scope means different assays, populations, or outcomes.
Effect sizes and settings differ across health equity studies — digital vs clinic, trial vs observational — so results should not be pooled casually.
Related papers in this topic
Same topic cluster — not a recommendation engine.