General practitioner care continuity and individual health among people living in supported housing: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Aims:

Compared with the general population, adults in supported housing have an increased risk of poor health and low continuity of healthcare. We explored whether people in supported housing experienced disparities in continuity of general practitioner (GP) care. Further, we explored whether disparities were associated with morbidity, disability, or healthcare utilisation.

Method:

This cross-sectional register-based study used nationwide administrative registers and databases to combine unique sociodemographic, health, and healthcare information. A reference population was matched by age, sex and region of residence. Low continuity of care was defined as contact to more than one GP clinic in 2019. Descriptive statistics were conducted.

Results:

Among 25,858 people in supported housing in Denmark in 2019, 27.8% had contact with more than one GP clinic in 2019 as compared with 14.1% in the reference population. Supported housing residents who had contact with three or more GP clinics in one year had higher morbidity (27.4% cardiovascular diseases), more GP contacts (mean 15.7 (standard deviation (SD) 8.33)), more contact with out-of-hour medical services (mean 2.87 (SD 4.77)), and more hospital contacts (acute admissions mean 0.88 (SD 2.44)) relative to people with contact with less than three GP clinics.

Conclusions:

People in supported housing had a lower continuity of GP care compared with a matched reference population. People in supported housing with low GP continuity had the highest level of morbidity and more frequent contact with both GP and hospital care in one year.