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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Betsy Lynn Sleath, PhD, School of Pharmacy Beard Hall, University of North Carolina, CB # 7360, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7360, 919-304-4552, betsy_sleath@unc.edu, Michael Calloway, PhD, Sheps Center for Health Services Research, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 725 Airport Road, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, and Laurie Selz-Campbell, School of Social Work, University of North Carolina, 301 Pittsboro St, Chapel Hill, NC 27599.
The purpose of this project was to examine the medication-taking behaviors of homeless women and children. Homeless women and children are one of the fastest growing segments of the homeless population. Yet little is known about the difficulties that these women and children face when attempting to take medications as prescribed. In-depth interviews were conducted with 57 homeless women who were staying in six different shelters in Wake County, North Carolina. Over half of these women had one or more chronic health conditions. Eighty-four percent of the women were taking one or more medications. Thirty percent of the women had cut back on a medication to make it last longer. Twenty-five percent of the women were purposively not taking one or more prescribed medications. The main perceived barriers to taking medications as prescribed included cost (28%) and transportation (24%). Thirty-three percent of the women had children who had taken one or more medications in the past week and 26% of the mothers with children on medications had to cut back on or not give their child a prescribed medication. Sixty percent of the mothers had questions about their or their children's medications. Thirty percent of the women reported feeling discriminated against by health care providers. Homeless women face extreme hardships when attempting to improve the lives of themselves and their children. Better policies need to be put into place so that homeless women and children can have improved access to medications so that they can be more adherent to their prescribed regimens and have better health outcomes.
Learning Objectives:
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.