Prevalence of risk factors of cardiovascular diseases among prisoners: a systematic review

Abstract

Purpose

Cardiovascular diseases threaten the global health system and their prevalence among the incarcerated population poses a huge economic burden to governments. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the prevalence of cardiovascular disease risk factors among prisoners.

Design/methodology/approach

A systematic review was done on published studies that looked at prevalence and risk factors of cardiovascular disease among either male or female prisoners or both. PubMed, PubMed Central, Google scholar, Cochrane and Medline databases were searched from a period of 6 June 2016 to 23 June 2016. Quality assessment was done for all papers based on their methodology.

Findings

Online search yielded a total of 58,587 papers of which 43 were appropriately titled, but 21 were rejected based on their abstracts. Five of the studies could not be included because full texts were not available; 17 studies that met inclusion criteria in terms of abstracts and methodology were included in the study. Majority of the studies assessed weight (64.7 per cent), height (64.7 per cent), body mass index (64.7 per cent) and blood pressure (17.6 per cent) of inmates. Two of the studies used secondary data and one collected qualitative information via focus group discussions. Overall, prevalence of obesity (23.3 per cent), smoking (53.4 per cent) and physical inactivity (57.5 per cent) reported were high among prisoners.

Practical implications

Most of the studies were conducted in developed countries and this implies that there is a paucity of data in developing countries where prevalence of cardiovascular diseases is high. There is the need for more studies to be conducted in this area among developing countries.

Originality/value

This paper informs stakeholders on factors that put inmates at risk of cardiovascular diseases and can initiate timely interventions to be implemented within prisons.

Citation

Agyapong, N.A.F., Annan, R.A. and Apprey, C. (2017), "Prevalence of risk factors of cardiovascular diseases among prisoners: a systematic review", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 47 No. 6, pp. 896-906. https://doi.org/10.1108/NFS-06-2017-0114