Many Homeless May Harbor Hepatitis C

HealthDay – 4 hrs ago MONDAY, June 18 (HealthDay News) -- Nearly 27 percent of homeless adults in Los Angeles may have hepatitis C, and nearly half don't know they have the potentially deadly infection, researchers say.

Hepatitis C virus can destroy the liver and lead to a liver transplant. Recent research shows that it kills more American adults than AIDS.

For the study, researchers surveyed 534 homeless adults, most of them black men, between June 2003 and February 2004.

Tests revealed that 26.7 percent of the study participants were infected with the hepatitis C virus -- a rate more than 10 times higher than the 2 percent rate in the general U.S. population. Of the infected people in the study, 46 percent did not know they had hepatitis C.

Less than 3 percent of those who knew they were infected had ever been treated, according to the researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Infection rates were much higher among those who had injected drugs or been in prison; those aged 40 or older; people with less education; U.S.-born adults; those with three or more tattoos; and users of serious non-injection drugs (excluding marijuana).

Sexual behaviors were not significantly related to hepatitis C infection, according to the study published in the July-August issue of the journal Public Health Reports.

"This and previous studies demonstrate that urban homeless adults in the U.S. are at high risk for hepatitis C virus infection," concluded study co-leader Dr. Lillian Gelberg, a professor of family medicine, and colleagues.

"Homeless adults need interventions that include hepatitis C virus education, counseling, voluntary testing and treatment services," the researchers wrote. "Hepatitis C virus prevention and treatment programs could be modeled after relevant successful interventions developed for U.S. homeless persons with HIV/AIDS."

The authors acknowledged some study limitations. While hepatitis C infection rates were based on blood tests, some of the other study measures relied on self-reporting, which is subject to recall bias.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has more about hepatitis C.

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Rhode Island passes bill to guarantee rights of homeless people

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One-Third of U.S. Homeless Population Is Obese: Study

HealthDay – Fri, May 18, 2012 FRIDAY, May 18 (HealthDay News) -- One-third of homeless people in the United States are obese, about the same rate as the general population, a new study finds.

It might seem that hunger and lack of food would put homeless people at risk for weighing too little, according to the researchers at Harvard Medical School in Boston and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

But, the high rate of obesity among homeless people may be due to their reliance on cheap foods that contain high levels of fat and sugar. Another possible explanation could be physiological -- chronic food shortages cause the body to adapt by storing fat reserves.

Other factors may include little physical activity, sleep deprivation and stress.

The researchers examined the body-mass index (a measure of body fat based on height and weight) in more than 5,600 homeless men and women in Boston and found that 32 percent were obese, just less than 6 percent were morbidly obese and just less than 2 percent were underweight.

The overall obesity rate among homeless people was almost as high as among the general population (about 34 percent). Homeless women, however, were much more likely to be obese than non-homeless women -- 43 percent vs. 35 percent.

The findings, which will appear in the Journal of Urban Health, suggest that obesity may have replaced underweight as the new malnutrition of the homeless, the researchers concluded.

"To our knowledge, this is the first study to rigorously evaluate whether obesity is a problem among the homeless in the U.S., as very little research has been done in this area," study co-author Paul Montgomery, a professor of psycho-social interventions at the University of Oxford, said in a journal news release.

"This study highlights the importance of the quality, as well as the quantity, of food that the homeless are consuming," Montgomery said. "Interventions aimed at reducing obesity in the homeless, such as improving nutritional standards in shelters or educational efforts at clinical sites, should be considered in light of these findings."

More information

National Health Care for the Homeless Council has more about homelessness and health.

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