(The Center Square) – University of Oregon researchers are studying the link between stress and long-term health conditions among homeless people and its impact on health inequity.
Jo Weaver, a global studies associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, is leading the study. It focuses on homeless people in Lane County, Oregon, according to a news release from the University of Oregon.
The research team is gathering data from people living on the street, in short-term shelters, encampments, and in more permanent housing arrangements.
“The research will explore the health effects of different experiences of homelessness because not all people experience it the same way,” the release said.
A $359,999 National Science Foundation grant is funding the study. The research team also includes Department of Anthropology faculty members Zachary DuBois and Josh Snodgrass.
“There hasn’t been a whole lot of work done on stress and health for people who have been unhoused,” Weaver said in the release. “We know that people who are experiencing houselessness have worse health overall compared to those with stable housing.”
Homeless people often face a larger risk for longer-term health issues, but researchers say they do not know what contributes to those risks, although they think chronic stress is a potential culprit.
The researchers are gathering data from homeless people to understand how stress impacts their physical health and allostatic load. The latter is the “physiological accumulation of stress that can affect basic functions such as metabolism,” the release said.
“When people are in a heightened state of stress, digestion is slowed, heart rate and blood pressure change,” Weaver said. “Chronic exposure to stress hormones is effectively like accelerated aging on people, and you can measure correlates of allostatic load by looking at blood and hair.”
In the field, researchers will use biomarkers to learn how stress may impact health and disease risks and to look for symptoms of possible chronic health conditions.
“Lab analyses of hair samples will assess levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and blood samples via simple finger pricks will allow researchers to provide screening information pertinent to diabetes, high cholesterol, iron-deficiency anemia, and more,” the release said. “The blood tests are immediately available, so research participants can be informed of their health data and share it with a medical provider.”
Researchers have also asked participants to fill out surveys about their experiences being homeless, including how they cope with the stresses of it. Researchers hope to learn more about participants’ life stories and better understand their long-term experiences and social connections and how those impact stress.
“People who are living unhoused are remarkably resilient, but we can leverage evidence-based practices and community-defined evidence such as housing first, rapid rehousing, and access to hygiene resources like community showers to make it so that they don’t have to encounter so much adversity,” Camille Cioffi, a research assistant professor at the UO’s Prevention Science Institute, said in the release.
The Eugene and Springfield metro area has 239,323 people, according to 2023 data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; 2,824 of those people are homeless, and 74% of its homeless population is unsheltered.
Researchers are working with many homeless outreach service nonprofits. They are using a “community-based approach where people living with housing insecurity provide advice on the study,” the release said.
Past research has largely focused on homeless populations in large American cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle. Mid-sized and small-sized cities have not been as closely examined, despite facing different challenges than larger ones.
“We need to better understand the challenges of houselessness and housing support in smaller communities,” Weaver said. “This is not just an issue that affects big cities. It used to be a big city issue, but I think that landscape has changed in the past five or 10 years in the U.S.”
Researchers hope to develop this study into a longer project. They want to apply for future funding to better understand the stressors so they can address these health issues.
“Health concerns are one of the things that ends up perpetuating houselessness,” Weaver said. “If we can figure out points where we could intervene and test various ways of intervening, we might ultimately support people’s ability to secure more permanent housing if they should choose to do that, which most people I work with want to do.”
