Hearth board member Rebecca Brown, MD, MPH, assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatrics at UC San Francisco is the first author of a study recently published in The Gerontologist that follows 350 people who are homeless and aged 50 and over, in Oakland, CA.
"Usually, we think of geriatric conditions as affecting much older adults in their 70's, 80's and 90's," said Dr. Brown. "We found these conditions were very common in homeless adults with an average age of just 58. We studied a very vulnerable population. Our systems need to be responsive to the challenges that these older adults have."
Dr. Brown previously authored a study, "Geriatric Syndromes in Older Homeless Adults", which followed 247 homeless older adults recruited from eight Boston shelters. That study also showed that homeless older adults have higher rates of geriatric syndromes than the general population.
The Hearth community would also like to congratulate Dr. Brown for winning the 2016 AGS Outstanding Junior Research Manuscript Award for her recent American Journal of Public Health manuscript "Health Outcomes Associated with Obtaining Housing Among Older Homeless Adults."
photo credit: flightlog