Medical Student Research Forum Posters

Objective: This study conducted in Sacramento, California seeks to explore the challenges of women living outside during the COVID pandemic between May and August 2020.

1. To provide background demographics of women living outdoors in Sacramento during the COVID pandemic from May and August 2020.

2. To describe sources of information about COVID and what sources these unhoused women considered to be reliable.

3. To describe the lived experiences of unhoused women living during the COVID pandemic.

4. To offer recommendations for future advocacy, education and resource priorities for this vulnerable population

Method: Mixed method study of convergent design where data was collected both via a quantitative paper survey and in-depth qualitative person to person interviews. 90 women completed the paper survey and of those 21 women completed an interview.

Results: Of the 200 adult survey participants 90 (45%) identified as female and 21 (23%) of those women completed qualitative interviews that were fully transcribed. The average age was 50 years old (Range 19-73), and 39 (43%) identified as white, black/African American 29 (32%), Hispanic/Latinx 5 (5.5%), mixed 13 (14%), and other 18 (20%). 99% of study participants spoke English as their primary language. 62% (56/90) identified as having a primary care provider, while 90% (81/90) said they had insurance, with Medicaid (MediCal) being the most common type of health insurance. Theme content was analyzed and organized into three main thematic categories: information/communication about COVID 19, access to basic necessities, and power/fear. Women’s knowledge of COVD varied dramatically with many having a sense that it’s a contagious respiratory illness, others denying its existence, and others believing the virus to be man-made. Access to resources also varied with the more urban located women having improved access compared to women living closer to the Sacramento River. The dynamics between members of power in the community and the unhoused women changed depending on the women – for example, some felt amicably about the police while others were triggered and easily intimidated. Our results suggest that homeless women have unique challenges and have had varied experiences in managing during the COVID pandemic. Many feel their access to health care resources improved during the pandemic, while others continued to struggled to find basic necessities.

Conclusion: The outcomes of this study can contribute to development of appropriate programs and interventions for this marginalized population. Seeing which resources were most valued by the community and which resources were misallocated can lead to more effective responses by community and government groups when addressed homeless women’s needs during public health crises.