Quality of life in homeless people
It is estimated that 895,000 people in Europe are homeless or living in insecure housing (HIH), which means at least 1 in 600 people are living rough, in temporary accommodation or shelters every night. We wanted to see if there is evidence of ‘quick wins’ to improve quality of life in HIH populations. We searched systematically for studies on quality of life in people who are HIH that were published between 2013 and March 2024.
Our search yielded 1,784 hits, of which 317 were focused on assessing quality of life or factors that affect quality of life in people with HIH. These abstracts were indexed to the following fields:
- Disease - any comorbidity in the HIH population being studied e.g. depression, substance use disorder, dental disease
- PRO tools - what instruments, questionnaires, scales etc. were used to assess quality of life or other aspects of health and wellbeing in HIH
- Study type - the methodology of the study e.g. randomised controlled trial, cross-sectional study, systematic literature review
- Subpopulations - age groups, gender and ethnic groups being assessed
- Year - publication year of the report
- Location - country in which the study was conducted, or author address if location not otherwise reported
- Type of homelessness - e.g. Vulnerably housed, Temporarily housed, Chronic homelessness
- Study size - number of HIH individuals being assessed
- Outcomes - what impacts the interventions had, where relevant, e.g. Improved well-being, Reduced risky behaviour, Increased housing stability
- Homelessness risk factors - e.g. substance abuse, mental health
- Interventions - e.g. Housing support, Substance use interventions, Healthcare, Individual support
