Sexism and medical care in a jail setting.

Abstract

As part of a study on health conditions in women's prisons, comparisons were made of outcomes of clinic visits by male and female prisoners in New York City jails on Rikers' Island. Despite a basic similarity in health problems, significant differences were found between the sexes in terms of number of clinicians with whom they had interaction, access to a physician, and access to treatment of any sort. Men were four times as likely to be seen by a physician and twice as likely to receive treatment. A general pattern of sex bias was determined to exist. Staffing patterns, clinic access and diagnostic bias are examined as possible explanations for the differences in care.