People experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles who contract COVID are 2.35 times more likely to die than someone in the general population, according to new study by UCLA, USC, and Los Angeles County.
The study, published in JAMA Network Open this month, suggests that homelessness is a unique risk factor for COVID-related deaths and that the likely cause is the vulnerability brought on by accelerated aging among the homeless, the researchers said.
UCLA is launching the Initiative to Study Hate, an ambitious social impact project that brings together a broad consortium of scholars to understand and ultimately mitigate hate in its multiple forms.
Supported by a $3 million gift from an anonymous donor, researchers will undertake 23 projects this year. The three-year pilot spans topics that examine the neurobiology of hate, the impact of social media hate speech on kids, the dehumanization of unhoused individuals, racial discrimination in health care settings and more.
Dr. Gelberg is a family physician, health services researcher, and professor in UCLA’s Department of Family Medicine and Fielding School of Public Health and the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and associate director of the UCLA Primary Care Research Fellowship. Her current research focuses on clinical trials to reduce risky drug use and promote healthy lifestyle change in low income populations using leading behavior change methodologies. Over the past 2 decades, Dr.
Center Affiliations
Education
- MD, Preventive and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
- MSPH, Health Services, University of California, Los Angeles, Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA
- BA, Psychobiology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA
- Family Medicine Residency, Montefiore Hospital, Bronx, NY
Dr. William McCarthy has devoted most of his 30+ year career to intervention studies designed to encourage members of special populations to adhere to federal nutrition and physical activity guidelines (African American adult women, low-income middle school students, low-income patients of community health centers) and to be smoke-free (WIC participants, aerospace workers, Korean and South Asian immigrants, residents of homeless shelters).
Center Affiliations
Education
- PhD, Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT
- MA, Psychology, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL
Dr. Ron Andersen is the Wasserman Professor Emeritus in the UCLA Departments of Health Policy and Management.
