For Publishers
DiscoveryMetadataPeer reviewHostingPublishing
For Researchers
JoinPublishReviewCollect
Register
Blog
About
Search
Advanced search
My ScienceOpen
Search
For Publishers
For Researchers
Blog
About
37
views
23
references
 Top references
cited by
16
    
0 reviews
 Review
0
comments
 Comment
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      308
      similar
       All similar
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      Self-reported health status and access to health services in a sample of prisoners in Italy

      research-article

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPMC
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Background

          Self-reported health status in underserved population of prisoners has not been extensively explored. The purposes of this cross-sectional study were to assess self-reported health, quality of life, and access to health services in a sample of male prisoners of Italy.

          Methods

          A total of 908 prisoners received a self-administered anonymous questionnaire pertaining on demographic and detention characteristics, self-reported health status and quality of life, access to health services, lifestyles, and participation to preventive, social, and rehabilitation programs. A total of 650 prisoners agreed to participate in the study and returned the questionnaire.

          Results

          Respectively, 31.6% and 43.5% of prisoners reported a poor perceived health status and a poor quality of life, and 60% admitted that their health was worsened or greatly worsened during the prison stay. Older age, lower education, psychiatric disorders, self-reported health problems on prison entry, and suicide attempts within prison were significantly associated with a perceived worse health status. At the time of the questionnaire delivery, 30% of the prisoners self-reported a health problem present on prison entry and 82% present at the time of the survey. Most frequently reported health problems included dental health problems, arthritis or joint pain, eye problems, gastrointestinal diseases, emotional problems, and high blood pressure. On average, prisoners encountered general practitioners six times during the previous year, and the frequency of medical encounters was significantly associated with older age, sentenced prisoners, psychiatric disorders, and self-reported health problems on prison entry.

          Conclusions

          The findings suggest that prisoners have a perceived poor health status, specific care needs and health promotion programs are seldom offered. Programs for correction of risk behaviour and prevention of long-term effects of incarceration on prisoners' health are strongly needed.

          Related collections

          Most cited references23

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: not found

          The health and health care of US prisoners: results of a nationwide survey.

          Andrew P. Wilper, Steffie Woolhandler, J Boyd … (2009)
          We analyzed the prevalence of chronic illnesses, including mental illness, and access to health care among US inmates. We used the 2002 Survey of Inmates in Local Jails and the 2004 Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities to analyze disease prevalence and clinical measures of access to health care for inmates. Among inmates in federal prisons, state prisons, and local jails, 38.5% (SE = 2.2%), 42.8% (SE = 1.1%), and 38.7% (SE = 0.7%), respectively, suffered a chronic medical condition. Among inmates with a mental condition ever treated with a psychiatric medication, only 25.5% (SE = 7.5%) of federal, 29.6% (SE = 2.8%) of state, and 38.5% (SE = 1.5%) of local jail inmates were taking a psychiatric medication at the time of arrest, whereas 69.1% (SE = 4.8%), 68.6% (SE = 1.9%), and 45.5% (SE = 1.6%) were on a psychiatric medication after admission. Many inmates with a serious chronic physical illness fail to receive care while incarcerated. Among inmates with mental illness, most were off their treatments at the time of arrest. Improvements are needed both in correctional health care and in community mental health services that might prevent crime and incarceration.
          Article 0 comments Cited 176 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            Enduring stigma: the long-term effects of incarceration on health.

            James John, Jason Schnittker (2007)
            Although incarceration rates have risen sharply since the 1970s, medical sociology has largely neglected the health effects of imprisonment. Incarceration might have powerful effects on health, especially if it instills stigma, and it could provide sociologists with another mechanism for understanding health disparities. This study identifies some of incarceration's direct and indirect effects and rigorously tests them using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. It finds that incarceration has powerful effects on health, but only after release. A history of incarceration strongly increases the likelihood of severe health limitations. Furthermore, any contact with prison is generally more important than the amount of contact, a finding consistent with a stigma-based interpretation. Although this relationship is partly attributable to diminished wage growth and marital instability, the bulk of the effect remains even under the most stringent of specifications, including controls for intelligence and the use of fixed effects, suggesting a far-reaching process with a proliferation of risk factors. The study also finds that incarceration contributes only modestly to racial disparities, that there are few synergistic interactions between incarceration and other features of inequality, including schooling, and that the evidence for a causal effect is much weaker among persistent recidivists and those serving exceptionally long sentences. These study findings are inconsistent with recent speculation; nevertheless, incarceration is an important addition to sociology's research agenda. Exploring incarceration could lead to, among other things, a fruitful synergy among studies on fundamental causes, stigma, and stress.
            Article 0 comments Cited 136 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: not found

              Social determinants and the health of drug users: socioeconomic status, homelessness, and incarceration.

              Sandro Galea, David Vlahov (2002)
              This article reviews the evidence on the adverse health consequences of low socioeconomic status, homelessness, and incarceration among drug users. Social and economic factors shape risk behavior and the health of drug users. They affect health indirectly by shaping individual drug-use behavior; they affect health directly by affecting the availability of resources, access to social welfare systems, marginalization, and compliance with medication. Minority groups experience a disproportionately high level of the social factors that adversely affect health, factors that contribute to disparities in health among drug users. Public health interventions aimed at improving the health of drug users must address the social factors that accompany and exacerbate the health consequences of illicit drug use.
              Article 0 comments Cited 93 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
                Bookmark
                All references

                Author and article information

                Journal
                Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMC Public Health
                Title: BMC Public Health
                Publisher: BioMed Central
                ISSN (Electronic): 1471-2458
                Publication date Collection: 2011
                Publication date (Electronic): 4 July 2011
                Volume: 11
                Page: 529
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Chair of Hygiene, Medical School, University of Catanzaro "Magna Græcia", Catanzaro, Italy
                [2 ]Department of Experimental Medicine, Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy
                [3 ]At the time of this study he was with the Chair of Hygiene, Medical School, University of Catanzaro ''Magna Græcia'', Catanzaro, Italy
                Article
                Publisher ID: 1471-2458-11-529
                DOI: 10.1186/1471-2458-11-529
                PMC ID: 3151234
                PubMed ID: 21726446
                SO-VID: 7360ac28-e2b0-4937-b2e5-3622267b06d8
                Copyright © Copyright ©2011 Nobile et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
                License:

                This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                Date received : 10 February 2011
                Date accepted : 4 July 2011
                Categories
                Subject: Research Article

                ScienceOpen disciplines: Public health
                Data availability:
                ScienceOpen disciplines: Public health

                Comments

                Comment on this article

                scite_

                Similar content308

                See all similar

                Cited by16

                See all cited by

                Most referenced authors247

                See all reference authors