Abstract
BackgroundSeveral studies have shown that prison is characterized by a higher prevalence of chronic diseases than unconfined settings. The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics and health of inmates, focusing on internal diseases.MethodsWe designed a specific clinical record using the Python programming language. We considered all of the diagnoses according to the ICD-9-CM.ResultsOf a total of 17,086 inmates, 15,751 were enrolled in our study (M = 14,835; F = 869), corresponding to 92.2% of the entire inmate population (mean age of 39.6 years). The project involved a total of 57 detention facilities in six Italian regions (for a total of 28% of all detainees in Italy), as counted in a census taken on February 3, 2014. From the entire study sample, 32.5% of prisoners did not present any disorders, while 67.5% suffered from at least one disease. The most frequent pathologies were psychiatric (41.3%), digestive (14.5%), infectious (11.5%), cardiovascular (11.4%), endocrine, metabolic, and immune (8.6%), and respiratory (5.4%).ConclusionThe findings showed that a large number of detainees were affected by several chronic conditions such as hypertension, dyslipidemia and type 2 diabetes mellitus, with an unusually high prevalence for such a young population. Therefore, a series of preventive measures is recommended to strengthen the entire care process and improve the health and living conditions of prisoners.
Highlights
Several studies have shown that prison is characterized by a higher prevalence of chronic diseases than unconfined settings
The inmates were imprisoned in 57 different Italian facilities, with 28% of the total number in national facilities; 53.7% of the participants were Italians, while 46.3% were participants from other EU/non-EU countries; 71% of the prison population were smokers, and the average number of cigarettes smoked per day was 18.6
Detainees become potential bearers of chronic diseases due to factors related to their surroundings, such as cold, damp environments in which they are unable to engage in physical activity
Summary
Several studies have shown that prison is characterized by a higher prevalence of chronic diseases than unconfined settings. More than 10.2 million people are held in penal institutions throughout the world (as pretrial detainees/remand prisoners or sentenced prisoners). Almost half of these individuals are in the United States, Russia or China, and at least 650,000 people in China and 150,000 people in North Korea are reported to be in pretrial or ‘administrative’ detention. Prison settings involve a high risk of contracting particular diseases [3]. Since detainees are usually released after serving a term of imprisonment, upon which they interact with communities living outside of prisons, they present a complex and difficult challenge for public health, especially with regard to tackling communicable diseases such as HIV or tuberculosis
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