Differences Between Elderly Public Housing Tenants and Community Residents: A Case-Control Study

Recent gerontological research has begun to focus on elderly public housing tenants, a large group at increased risk for adverse health outcomes. We identified a cohort of functionally independent tenants and selected age-race-sex matched controls who reside in the community. Generally, the two cohorts were comparable in their self-reported physical and mental health status. However, tenants had a significantly higher hospital admission rate, with almost half of the tenants hospitalized during a 1-year period. Despite tenants having significantly weaker social support systems, social support was not associated with hospital admissions. Extraordinarily high hospital admission rates indicate the needfor interventions in this patient population, and tenants' location in a single site enhances the opportunity for intervention.