Homeless Men Prone to Higher Number of Head Injuries: Study

A latest study appearing in the Emergency Medicine Journal states that men who are heavy drinkers and homeless for a long period of time are 400 times more prone to suffer from head injuries when compared to the general population. 

The study was conducted by Dr. Tomislav Svoboda, a family physician at St. Michael's Hospital. It states that homeless men, when compared to the general population, are 170 times more prone to suffer from severe head injuries and 300 times as many injuries that cause bleeding in the brain.

For the current study, researchers focused on the general homeless population and those who resided in crowded, unsafe and unaffordable housing, or are in danger of becoming homeless. The researchers noticed that these groups had just 23 times the number of head injuries as the general population, but the numbers are low when compared to the chronically homeless.

Prior to this, studies that focused on head injuries among homeless people were based on interviews, but the present study is based on actual Emergency Department records over five years, and is the first to compare people who are homeless with the general population. The study focused on different types of head injuries, right from concussions to brain hemorrhages.

"We were shocked by the number of head injuries. In medicine, we worry when something occurs two or three times more often in a particular patient group, but to talk about magnitudes of 300 or 400 is unheard of. We need to do something for this group, we're seeing data that suggests they are in a downward spiral. We need to develop programs to understand and treat this serious and permanent problem. When the brain is injured, you can't fix it. We need to identify and support these people, " Dr. Svoboda said in a press statement.