IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aph/ajpbhl/10.2105-ajph.2014.302248_3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Tobacco-, alcohol-, and drug-attributable deaths and their contribution to mortality disparities in a cohort of homeless adults in Boston

Author

Listed:
  • Baggett, T.P.
  • Chang, Y.
  • Singer, D.E.
  • Porneala, B.C.
  • Gaeta, J.M.
  • O'Connell, J.J.
  • Rigotti, N.A.

Abstract

Objectives. We quantified tobacco-, alcohol-, and drug-attributable deaths and their contribution to mortality disparities among homeless adults. Methods. We ascertained causes of death among 28 033 adults seen at the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program in 2003 to 2008. We calculated population-attributable fractions to estimate the proportion of deaths attributable to tobacco, alcohol, or drug use. We compared attributable mortality rates with those for Massachusetts adults using rate ratios and differences. Results. Of 1302 deaths, 236 were tobacco-attributable, 215 were alcoholattributable, and 286 were drug-attributable. Fifty-two percent of deaths were attributable to any of these substances. In comparison with Massachusetts adults, tobacco-attributable mortality rates were 3 to 5 times higher, alcoholattributable mortality rates were 6 to 10 times higher, and drug-attributable mortality rates were 8 to 17 times higher. Disparities in substance-attributable deaths accounted for 57% of the all-cause mortality gap between the homeless cohort and Massachusetts adults. Conclusions. In this clinic-based cohort of homeless adults, over half of all deaths were substance-attributable, but this did not fully explain the mortality disparity with the general population. Interventions should address both addiction and non-addiction sources of excess mortality. © 2015, American Public Health Association Inc. All rights reserved.

Suggested Citation

  • Baggett, T.P. & Chang, Y. & Singer, D.E. & Porneala, B.C. & Gaeta, J.M. & O'Connell, J.J. & Rigotti, N.A., 2015. "Tobacco-, alcohol-, and drug-attributable deaths and their contribution to mortality disparities in a cohort of homeless adults in Boston," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 105(6), pages 1189-1197.
    • Handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2014.302248_3
    DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2014.302248
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2014.302248
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2105/AJPH.2014.302248?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Luciano Magalhães Vitorino & Jorge Gelvane Tostes & Júlio César Lima Ferreira & Luiz Aurelio Gazzola de Oliveira & João Gabriel Possetti & Marcelo Teixeira Silva Jr & Mário Vicente Campos GuimarÃ, 2024. "Association between religiosity/spirituality and substance use among homeless individuals," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 70(2), pages 330-339, March.
    2. Jie Gao & Haiyan Qu & Keith M. McGregor & Amrej Singh Yadav & Hon K. Yuen, 2022. "Associations between Duration of Homelessness and Cardiovascular Risk Factors: A Pilot Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-10, November.
    3. Jayda Martinez & Midhat Z. Jafry & Tzuan A. Chen & Michael S. Businelle & Darla E. Kendzor & Maggie Britton & Maya Vijayaraghavan & Lorraine R. Reitzel, 2022. "Guest Support for Outdoor Smoke-Free Policies within a Homeless Shelter," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-15, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2014.302248_3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christopher F Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.apha.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.