The Association of Interpersonal Relationships and Social Services with the Self-Rated Health of Spanish Homelessness

Fernando Fajardo-Bullón, Jesús Pérez-Mayo and Igor Esnaola
Additional contact information
Fernando Fajardo-Bullón: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Extremadura, Avenida de Elvas s/n, 06006 Badajoz, Spain
Igor Esnaola: Department of Development and Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU, Avenida de Tolosa, 70, San Sebastián, 20018 Leioa, Spain

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 17, 1-18

Abstract: Understanding the specific factors associated with poor health is critical to improve the health of homeless people. This study aimed to analyze the influence of personal variables, interpersonal relationships, and the influence of social services on the health of homeless people. A secondary analysis was applied to cross-sectional data from a sample of 1382 homeless people living in the Basque Country (Spain) (75.69% male). Multinomial logistic regression modelling was used to analyze the relationship between health and personal variables, interpersonal variables, perceived help and use of the social services. Relationships with the family, using a day center, and a sufficient and high perceived help of the social services were significant factors associated with good health. On the other hand, spending the day alone or using mental and health care services are associated with poor health. In the same way, the longer a person has been homeless, the worse their expected state of health is. Addressing housing exclusion, promoting interpersonal relationships, using a day center, and developing the use and perceived helpfulness of social services stand out as key factors in improving health status. Social policies are usually focused on housing. However, this paper also highlights the relevance of developing interpersonal relationships and using day centers to improve homeless people’s health.

Keywords: self-rated health; homelessness; interpersonal relationship; social services; Spain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/17/9392/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/17/9392/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:17:p:9392-:d:629864

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().