Factors associated with non-treatment for long-term illness among incarcerated individuals
Abstract
Purpose
The prison population is seldom studied and often overlooked in many countries despite their vulnerability to long-term illness. This study aims to explore the factors associated with the non-treatment for long-term illnesses among incarcerated individuals.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is a cross-sectional analysis. The authors conducted a secondary data analysis using information collected in the Peruvian census of incarcerated individuals. The study population consisted of incarcerated individuals diagnosed with a long-term illness. To evaluate the factors associated with non-treatment, the authors used a Poisson regression model.
Findings
The authors included 12,512 incarcerated individuals (age: 40.9 ± 13.1 years), and 39% of them did not receive treatment for their long-term illness. The authors observed that non-treatment was statistically associated with gender, age, having children, use of the Spanish language, sexual identity, judicial situation, penitentiary location, discrimination inside the penitentiary and health insurance before incarceration. However, only having children (prevalence ratio [PR]: 1.11, confidence interval [CI]95% 1.03–1.19), using the Spanish language (PR: 1.15, CI95%: 1.01–1.31), being in a penitentiary not in Lima (PR: 1.11, CI95%: 1.06–1.17) and perceiving discrimination inside the penitentiary (PR: 1.12, CI95% 1.06–1.18) increased the prevalence of non-treatment.
Originality/value
Identifying the factors associated with non-treatment will allow us to implement measures for prioritizing groups and developing strategies for the evaluation, close follow-up of their health and management of comorbidities.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Paula Carballo-Jimenez, Fellow ISSF Global Health Clinical Research Training in Imperial College London, who provided much support by reviewing the draft of this article.
Funding: Self-funded.
Competing interests: Authors declare noninterest conflicts. The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Authors contribution: CPT and WNG were part of the conception, designed data analysis of the paper ACV interpretation of the data. All authors were part of the drafting and/or critical review of the intellectual content as well as the final version. The authors take full responsibility for all aspects of the paper to ensure any questions related to the accuracy or totality of the paper are properly investigated and resolved.
Citation
Nieto-Gutiérrez, W., Cvetković-Vega, A., Cáceres-Távara, M.E. and Ponce-Torres, C. (2024), "Factors associated with non-treatment for long-term illness among incarcerated individuals", International Journal of Prison Health, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPH-05-2023-0026
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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