Frostbite and trench foot; Alaska’s homeless struggling more with specific cold weather injuries

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - As temperatures drop this month and snow becomes more visible on the Chugach Mountains, a new state report from the Department of Health shows that cold weather injuries are ‘progressively higher’ in the homeless population and it continues to increase over the years.

Aric Axelton, a homeless man in Anchorage, spent some of this week looking for new snow gear to prepare for a decrease in temperatures by Friday.

“I’m kind of just toughing it out, so, I mean, I’ve been praying a lot,” Axelton said.

Data was gathered from 2012 through 2021 to learn how hospitalized people were injured because of cold temperatures.

Was the cold weather injury because of recreational activities like skiing, hiking, and ice skating? Or was it from subsistence gathering or the environment?

“The odds of a cold exposure injury among [people without housing] were 8.3 times those of housed individuals. After review of [Alaska Trauma Registry] medical record notes, being unhoused was identified as the principle underlying factor in 23.3% (132/566) of all cold exposure injuries,” the bulletin stated.

The bulletin says the numbers may actually be higher because some people don’t want to disclose their housing status.

Injuries from the cold have led to freezing skin, amputated body parts, and death, according to the bulletin.

Cold weather injuries are also different for people who have homes versus the unhoused.

“Frostbite and trench foot are frequent occurrences, almost always in people experiencing homelessness. Hypothermia, at least in my anecdotal experience, is much more associated with outdoor recreation and unexpected circumstances (e.g., people getting injured in the backcountry with prolonged rescue times). We do see hypothermia in many other situations, but it’s often secondary to some other issue like trauma or intoxication,” Dr. Daniel Mindlin, a physician who works in the Emergency Department at Providence Alaska Medical Center, said.

“The rate of cold exposure injuries among PWH has increased in recent years,” the bulletin stated. ”Possible contributors to this increase include colder than average winters, increased snowfall (particularly during 2020 and 2021), and improved case detection.”

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