Abstract
Background: Mental healthcare and lifestyle habits in prison, especially for older individuals, has been shown to be suboptimal. Most psychiatric conditions left untreated worsen food choices, physical inactivity, and substance abuse. In turn, bad habits lead to poorer mental health.Methods: To comprehensively illustrate this downward spiraling, we completed a thorough analysis of data obtained through semi-structured qualitative interviews. There were 50 interviews of aging incarcerated people included in this article. They were analyzed following a classical six-stepped thematic analysis.Results: According to our participants, sports are not well-adapted to aging individuals, nor to people with medical conditions. Prison is even more unadapted for those who both are aging and have medical conditions. Also, food served is less than optimal. According to our interviews, the older imprisoned individual often does not have access to food adapted to his or her medical conditions. Sport is maladapted for older incarcerated individuals and mostly tailored for younger ones. Finally, boredom and lack of responsibility hinder change toward a better lifestyle for older adults in prison.Conclusion: Our paper shows why prison environmental modifications are needed to help older adults with their lifestyle habits. It also exposes an original way to see the relationship between mental health and lifestyle habits.
Highlights
An increasing number of imprisoned persons will reach 50 years in Western societies in the upcoming years [1, 2], and they continue to remain a neglected sub-group among the prison population [3]
There is a scarcity of research when it comes to the older imprisoned adult with mental health problems [16, 17], which our study findings address
Our project gave voice to older imprisoned adults, and we have incorporated our results within this topic of bad habits in a downward spiraling framework
Summary
An increasing number of imprisoned persons will reach 50 years in Western societies in the upcoming years [1, 2], and they continue to remain a neglected sub-group among the prison population [3]. Incarcerated older individuals often require special care for they are more ill than their younger counterparts [4, 5]. Some older adults in prison lack mobility leading to exclusion from sports and leisure facilities when compared to the younger individuals [5, 6]. No specific incentives exist for older incarcerated person’s participation in sports. Older persons often do not take actions toward improvement despite their harmful lifestyle habits in prisons [7]. Lifestyle habits comprise physical activities, nutrition, and consumption of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. Mental healthcare and lifestyle habits in prison, especially for older individuals, has been shown to be suboptimal. Bad habits lead to poorer mental health
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