Factors associated with health services financier among temporary sheltered homeless in urban Malaysia

BACKGROUND: The presence of homelessness in Malaysia is not a new issue. The existence of homeless population is growing, along with the development of this country. With the increasing number of homelessness, the range of issues, such as health services financier among them, has surfaced. However, there was limited study conducted on this subject. The main objective of this study was thus, to identify the financier of health services among the homelessness in Kuala Lumpur and factors associated with it. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, we include 196 homeless people aged above 18 years, Malaysian who were able to communicate with interviewers, and respondents who were not aggressive. These respondents were transits at Pusat Transit Gelandangan Kuala Lumpur and Anjung Singgah Kuala Lumpur and were available during interview sessions. They were selected via simple random sampling and were interviewed via face to face guided interviews using a validated structured questionnaire. Data were analysed descriptively, as well as using bivariate and multivariate analysis to explore the associated factors. RESULTS: The study showed that 57.7% homeless utilized the health services with only 37.8% assessed government health services. Only 42.5% of the respondents use their own money and 46.9% received aids to finance their health. Major influencing factors that influence homeless people to use their own money for health services were education level, income and disability, with adjusted OR (95% CI) of 3.15 (1.07–9.25), 0.08 (0.029–3.07) and 0.05 (0.003–0.88) while p value was 0.037, < 0.001 and 0.041 respectively. The influencing factors for receiving aid for health services were income and those who took drugs with adjusted OR (95% CI) of 6.50 (2.30–18.39), and 0.33 (0.11–0.95) while p value was < 0.001 and 0.041 respectively. CONCLUSION: There is low healthcare services utilization and affordability among homelessness. All parties should play a role in ensuring that homeless people are not left behind in the health care accessibility in Malaysia.