Gender, Perceived Health Status, and Social Support Amongst Oahu's Homeless.

Abstract

Homelessness has been increasing on Oahu for the past several years. The health status of the homeless, sheltered population is unexplored because of the challenges in gathering data about their situations. This exploratory research has detailed the sociodemographic profile of this group, exploring the impact of race/ethnicity, gender, class, age, parental status, length of homelessness (LOH), and social support on the perceived health status of the homeless, sheltered population on Oahu, Hawai`i. This research surveyed 151 participants living in four shelters: two in urban and two in rural settings. The research explored the perceived health status, availability of social support and length of homelessness (LOH), respectively, using the Center for Disease Control (CDC)’s Healthy Days Core Module (HDC), Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL), and Length of Homelessness survey (LOH). The three models, the general health, physical and mental health statuses were analyzed using bivariate analysis, ordinal logistic regression, and negative binomial regression models. The results suggest that Micronesians are more likely to have fewer physically and mentally sick days than their White counterparts within the homeless population. It appears that Micronesians migrating from collectivistic society share similar cultural values and burdens of homeless situations. In contrast, the White participants with individualistic values face the challenges alone. Sheltered women are more likely to have poorer mental health status than men. The physically sick days model indicated that social support had a negative, not positive, impact on a participant’s health status. Implications for future research to focus on the type and frequency of social support resources that work well for Micronesians and explore the mechanism that will work well for the White participants.