Pattern of Illness in Prisoners Admitted in a Tertiary Care Hospital of South Eastern Rajasthan

Abstract

The delivery of health care among prisoners is one of the most important aspects of improving human rights compliance. Estimating common healthcare problems in prisoners will be helpful in assessing their health status and recommending the rectifying steps. Therefore, knowing the types of morbidities will help us in making health policies which will be helpful in reducing the health burden in prisoners and will also help in reintegration of prisoners into mainstream society. The present study is a retrospective analysis to find out the common medical conditions in prisoners. The study was carried out by collecting data of 500 admitted prisoner in a tertiary care institute in south-east Rajasthan. The majority (95.2%) of referred prisoners were male, from age group of 30-39 years, mean age of prisoners being 39.6 years and the majority (90%) were referred from Central Jail, Kota. The majority (53.2%) of prisoners were admitted to medicine department followed by psychiatry department (26.4%). A higher prevalence of anemia and pulmonary tuberculosis was reported among prisoners. Surgical illness related to infectious etiology and poor personal hygiene was common in prisoners. Psychosis not specified (17%), schizophrenia (8%), mixed anxiety depressive disorder (8%) and substance use disorders (16%) were common psychiatric conditions. Mean duration of hospitalization was 9 days.