Comparison of Causes of Mortality Between Hospitalized Unsheltered Homeless Patients and Non-Homeless Sex and Age-Matched Controls: A Retrospective Case-Control Study.

Abstract

Objectives: Roofless individuals represent the most severe category of homelessness. Their clinical characteristics and mortality patterns in Central and Eastern Europe are little known.

Methods: A single-center retrospective case-control study at the internal medicine department in Bratislava, Slovakia was conducted. 5694 mortality records from 2010 to 2023 were screened, and 141 (118 men, 23 women) roofless individuals were identified. Patients were sex- and age-matched, with 141 patients from the cohort of non-homeless deceased patients.

Results: Compared to controls, roofless people had a higher incidence of immobility (p = 0.02) and hypothermia (p < 0.0001) at admission. 83% of the roofless people were men, and 59% of the roofless people died before reaching old age (60+). Homeless men died more often from infectious disease (p = 0.02), pneumonia being the most common one (60%). Men from the control group died more often from liver diseases (p = 0.03). There were no significant differences in the causes of mortality between women.

Conclusion: These findings could help to reduce the invisibility of the issue of massive premature mortality amongst homeless populations and roofless individuals, in particular.