Marcel Slockers

84 Chapter 5 Key points • Unnatural death is a leading cause of mortality in a cohort of homeless persons in Rotterdam. • Compared to the general population of this city, homeless people in Rotterdam have a 15-fold higher risk to die from unnatural causes. • Half of all unnatural deaths in this cohort are caused by intentional injuries: suicide and homicide. • Mortality due to intentional injury differed significantly between two study periods: after vs. before implementation of social policy measures. Ethics statement The Medical Ethical Review Committee of the Erasmus MC declared that this study was not subject to the Law on Medical research with human beings and had no objections to its performance. Conflicts of interest: None declared. Funding This study was supported by a grant from the Municipal Health Service (GGD) Rotter- dam-Rijnmond en The Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development. Data This paper presents results based on calculations by Erasmus MC using non-public microdata from Statistics Netherlands. Under certain conditions, these microdata are accessible for statistical and scientific research. For further information: microdata@cbs. nl.