Silent killer diseases produce minimum or no symptoms and if not treated are capable of causing death. Heart disease, hypertension and diabetes are examples of silent diseases. There are other less known diseases such as renal cell cancer. Homelessness is another less known silent killer, but is not a disease or illness, it is a product of society. It does, however, produce signs and symptoms that nurses should be aware of. When homelessness is ignored or not treated, death at an early age is often the outcome.
A study investigating homeless mortality in England for the period 2001–2009 suggests that the average age of death for homeless people is astonishingly low at 47 years old, compared to an age of 77 for the general population (Crisis, 2011). There is much evidence that people who are sleeping, or have slept, rough and/or are living in hostels and night shelters
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Jasmine Walter
Jasmine Walter is a Content Editor at Mark Allen Group, working across a range of healthcare journals. She worked at an open access scientific publishing company for three years before joining MAG. She now writes and edits content for BJN Inform.
