Measures of Disease Frequency (Chapter 2)

In 2009, President Obama launched a nationwide initiative to endhomelessness in the U.S. by 2020. The homeless are a vulnerablepopulation with limited access to health care and poor healthoutcomes. In order to allocate sufficient federal and localresources to eliminate homelessness, U.S. cities conduct an annualsurvey to estimate the number of homeless persons living withinmajor cities. The City of Boston’s Emergency Shelter Commission(ESC) conducted a survey of homelessness on the night of January25, 2017. Volunteers counted the number of homeless persons livingon the streets, in emergency shelters for individuals or families,in domestic violence programs, in residential mental health orsubstance abuse programs, transitional housing, and in specializedprograms.

1. Which of the following best describes the homeless populationin the City of Boston?

a. Dynamic population

b. Fixed population

2. Which of the following describes the homeless population thattook part in the ESC survey on January 25^th?

a. Dynamic population

b. Fixed population

3. The 2015 Homeless Census counted 3,456 homeless persons inBoston. The 2016 homeless census counted 3,384 homeless persons inBoston. The size of the population in Boston was 665,984 in 2015and 673,184 in 2016. From 2015-2016, did the burden ofhomelessness:

a. Increase

b. Decrease

c. Stay the same (2015: .52%, 2016 0.50%)

d. Cannot determine from this information

4. What do you consider to be the biggest limitation in thehomeless survey and why?

a. Time of year (winter)

b. Survey conducted one time annually, not more frequently

c. Survey unlikely captured all homeless persons

d. Survey captures prevalence, not incidence of homelessness