Treatment burden for people experiencing homelessness with a recent non-fatal overdose: a questionnaire study

People experiencing homelessness (PEH) who have problem drug use have complex medical and social needs, with barriers to accessing services and treatments. Their treatment burden (workload of self-management and impact on wellbeing) remains unexplored.

To investigate treatment burden in PEH with a recent non-fatal overdose using a validated questionnaire, the Patient Experience with Treatment and Self-management (PETS).

The PETS questionnaire was collected as part of a pilot randomised control trial (RCT) undertaken in Glasgow, Scotland; the main outcome is whether this pilot RCT should progress to a definitive RCT.

An adapted 52-item, 12-domain PETS questionnaire was used to measure treatment burden. Greater treatment burden was indicated by higher PETS scores.

Of 128 participants, 123 completed PETS; mean age was 42.1 (standard deviation [SD] 8.4) years, 71.5% were male, and 99.2% were of White ethnicity. Most (91.2%) had >5 chronic conditions, with an average of 8.5 conditions. Mean PETS scores were highest in domains focusing on the impact of self-management on wellbeing: physical and mental exhaustion (mean 79.5, SD 3.3) and role and social activity limitations (mean 64.0, SD 3.5) Scores were higher than those observed in studies of patients who are not homeless.

In a socially marginalised patient group at high risk of drug overdose, the PETS showed a very high level of treatment burden and highlights the profound impact of self-management work on wellbeing and daily activities. Treatment burden is an important person-centred outcome to help compare the effectiveness of interventions in PEH and merits inclusion in future trials as an outcome measure.