Wellcome Blog Post : A population with unmet healthcare needs

Dr Rob Aldridge is a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellow at the Institute of Health Informatics. His research involves  using data and digital technologies to investigate and improve the health of the public with a particular focus on invisible populations, establishing the burden of disease in migrants, homeless, prisoners, sex workers and individuals with substance use disorders. 

Rob recently conducted a study using linked hospital admission records and mortality data exploring the causes of death among homeless people with the main reported finding being that almost a third of homeless deaths are due to causes known to be preventable by the implementation of timely and effective health care. 

Rob discusses the methods, findings and limitations of this study in the Wellcome Open Research blog.

"Equally important will be the creation of tailored approaches that take account of the lived reality of people experiencing homelessness in order to find ways to support adherence to essential medicines such as those that can lower blood pressure or cholesterol as these are plausibly linked to the high number of deaths from heart disease that we found."

To read the full blog post visit the Wellcome Open Research website.

The full study's citation is: Aldridge RW, Menezes D, Lewer D et al. Causes of death among homeless people: a population-based cross-sectional study of linked hospitalisation and mortality data in England. [version 1; peer review: 2 approved]. Wellcome Open Res 2019, 4:49 (https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15151.1)