Prevalence and multi-morbid correlates of homelessness among veterans with HIV infection nationally in the veterans health administration

ABSTRACT

This study sought to evaluate the risk of homelessness among HIV positive users of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) services. National VHA administrative data from Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 (N = 5.4 million) were used to: (1) evaluate the unadjusted risk of homelessness among veterans with HIV; (2) identify common multi-morbid correlates of both HIV diagnosis and homelessness; and (3) to assess the independent risk of homelessness among veterans with HIV after adjusting for risk factors common to both conditions. Veterans with HIV were at substantial risk of homelessness (OR = 4.23 (95% CI 4.07–4.39)). However, with adjustment for shared co-variates (especially black race, low income, substance use, and psychiatric disorders) this risk declined substantially to 1.41 (95% CI 1.35–1.48). The high risk of homelessness among HIV positive veterans is largely attributable to multi-morbid risk factors common to both HIV and homelessness rather than to an independent effect of HIV, and requires multi-dimensional preventive psychosocial interventions.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV
• homelessness
• veterans
• psychiatric disorders
• substance use disorders

Acknowledgments

The authors report no competing interests.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.