In a review published in The Lancet Public Health our project partners from the Center for Public Health at the Medical University of Vienna and The International Foundation for Integrated Care, outline the current state of knowledge on cancer risk factors among people experiencing homelessness and the barriers and facilitators for accessing cancer prevention among people who are homeless.
Forty studies were included in the review. The results show that people experiencing homelessness are highly exposed to certain cancer risk factors, most notably tobacco use, which ranges from 26% to 74%, which is very high compared to population survey data. In addition, the findings contribute to the understanding of the dynamic, often interlinked, multi-level factors that influence access to cancer prevention services: socio-economic, psychological and physical factors (individual level), practical support and relational loop between health professionals and people experiencing homelessness (interpersonal level), access to regular health care (system level) and interventions to facilitate access to cancer prevention (policy level).