Rosenheck R, Koegel P
Northeast Program Evaluation Center, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, West Haven, Connecticut 06516.
Hosp Community Psychiatry. 1993 Sep;44(9):858-63. doi: 10.1176/ps.44.9.858.
To uncover possible explanations for the large numbers of veterans in the homeless population, the study sought to identify differences in sociodemographic and clinical characteristics between homeless male veterans and other homeless men.
A secondary analysis of data from three surveys of homeless Americans conducted during the mid-1980s was used to compare homeless veterans and homeless nonveterans.
Compared with nonveterans, homeless veterans were older, more likely to be white, better educated, and more likely to be previously or currently married. Generally, veterans did not differ from nonveterans on any indicator of residential instability, current social functioning, physical health, mental illness, or substance abuse. Examination of national data comparing domiciled veterans and nonveterans in the general population showed that observed sociodemographic differences between homeless veterans and nonveterans were largely explained by differences between these groups in the general population.
Although homeless veterans had higher educational levels and were more likely to have been married in the past than homeless nonveterans, these advantages did not appear to protect them from homelessness. Veterans appear to be at risk for homelessness for much the same reasons as other American men.
为揭示无家可归者群体中退伍军人数量众多的可能原因，该研究试图确定无家可归的男性退伍军人与其他无家可归男性在社会人口统计学和临床特征方面的差异。
对20世纪80年代中期进行的三项美国无家可归者调查数据进行二次分析，以比较无家可归的退伍军人和无家可归的非退伍军人。
与非退伍军人相比，无家可归的退伍军人年龄更大，更有可能是白人，受教育程度更高，且更有可能曾经或目前已婚。总体而言，退伍军人在居住稳定性、当前社会功能、身体健康、精神疾病或药物滥用的任何指标上与非退伍军人没有差异。对全国数据进行检查，比较普通人群中有住所的退伍军人和非退伍军人，结果显示，无家可归的退伍军人和非退伍军人之间观察到的社会人口统计学差异在很大程度上是由这些群体在普通人群中的差异所解释的。
尽管无家可归的退伍军人受教育水平较高，且比无家可归的非退伍军人更有可能在过去结过婚，但这些优势似乎并未使他们免于无家可归。退伍军人面临无家可归风险的原因似乎与其他美国男性大致相同。
