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Article History

Received: 11 July 2023

Accepted: 4 April 2025

First Online: 3 June 2025

Declarations

:

: Ethics approval for the study was secured from the National Research Ethics Committee (reference 16/EE/0018) in addition to local research and development approvals for survey data collection at NHS sites. Participants provided informed written consent to be interviewed and for their data to be included in the analysis for this study.Participants were not asked to provide consent to linkage of their survey data to their Hospital Episode Statistics data. We undertook this linkage without explicit consent due to the complexities in retrospectively identifying and consenting those concerned. We identified, through user engagement with people who had experience of homelessness, that the majority felt that consent should not be a requirement for data linkage that aims to improve health services for homeless people, so long as adequate data security measures are followed and studies are ethically and legally approved. The data linkage was undertaken following approval (reference 16/CAG/0021) from the Secretary of State for Health through the Confidentiality Advisory Group (CAG).. All methods were performed following the relevant guidelines and regulations.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare no competing interests.