Hypertension among women experiencing incarceration: A comparison with the general female population

ABSTRACT

To compare the prevalence and characteristics of hypertension in women experiencing incarceration (WEI) to the general population in Brazil: (1) a prison survey conducted from January 2014 to December 2015 in 15 states, with 1,327 WEI; and (2) a household survey in the 26 states and the Federal District of Brazil administered to women in the general population (WGP). Data analysis used SPSS® version 20.0. The point estimates and the prevalence ratio with their respective confidence intervals were calculated using Poisson regression. Ages in the two populations differed, 27.9% of WGP were over 50, while 7.3% of WEI were. The overall prevalence of arterial hypertension was 31.3% (95% CI: 28.6–34.0) in the WEI and 38.9% (95% CI: 37.8–39.9) for WGP. For individuals under 30, hypertension was found in 22.4% of WEI and 13.4% of WGP. WEI have a higher prevalence of hypertension at an earlier age than the GP. Less education, obesity, using illegal drugs, previous pregnancy, and not using contraceptives were more frequent in this group, revealing the need to implement policies aimed at treating both their hypertension and other health issues in prison.

KEYWORDS:

• Hypertension
• prisons
• women’s health
• population studies in public health

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In Brazil, prisoners are categorized by biological sex at birth for assignment to male and female prisons. In practice sexual orientation and gender identity are used to group and isolate prisoners who may suffer in the general prison population. They are not likely to receive gender appropriate care. This reamins an important issue that we could not address in our study, but undoubtedly affects the health of prisoners.

Additional information

Funding

The project was funded by the Brazilian Ministry of Health through the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico), Grant/Award Number 405278/2012-8, CNPq Sciences without Borders (Ciências sem Fronteiras) Grant/Award Number 2945/2013; Health Surveillance Secretariat, Department of STD, AIDS and viral hepatitises (Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde/Departamento de DST, Aids e hepatites virais) Grant/Award Number 01/2013.