Homelessness In The United States

Homelessness is a problem that is prevalent in the United States. At any given time in the year of 2012, up to 630,000 people were declared homeless, or without a stable living area. Because of their unstable living conditions, homeless people may have a variety of healthcare issues that they cannot adequately afford care for. Some of those conditions might include drug addiction, mental illness, and other common injuries. Diabetes and hypertension are two of the diseases that are known to occur among homeless people. Hypertension, which is defined as high blood pressure, “occurs in 29-31% of US adults and is the most common reason for prescription medication.” (“Diabetes and Hypertension Prevalence in Homeless Adults in the United States: …show more content…
People might not know that they need to check their blood pressure regularly to spot any discrepancies in the numbers, and the same goes for checking blood glucose levels. If there was a way for homeless people to get blood glucose readers, test strips for those readers, and blood pressure cuffs for a low to nothing cost, that would be fantastic. I wish that people that are homeless could still receive the adequate healthcare that they might need. From my perspective, they are still human beings, but they are just in a less fortunate living situation than most people, sometimes not by choice. I think that if people that are incarcerated can get healthcare, then homeless people should too. Before reading this article, I thought that hypertension and diabetes would be higher among homeless people compared to people who aren’t homeless. I thought this because homeless people often will take whatever they can get to eat, or when someone gives them money they might go to get some fast food or processed foods. When the food pantry gives out food to the homeless, it is often canned food that is processed so it can last longer. Those processed foods are high in sodium and sugar, which can be a major factor contributing to hypertension and diabetes. I think that educating people and making them aware of symptoms and complications of hypertension and diabetes can help decrease the amount of people who are at risk for both

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