Background: Prisons are high-risk settings for the transmission of communicable disease. Robust surveillance systems are required to identify and control outbreaks. Wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 was introduced in four prisons in Wales in March 2022.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Despite little fluctuation in the numbers of people under community justice supervision in England and Wales, the number of deaths in this population has more than doubled between 2013-14 and 2020-21, from 560 to 1343 deaths. Contributing factors and causes of mortality are somewhat unknown. The aim of this study was to understand the number and the leading causes of people dying while under community justice supervision in Wales, UK, between April 1, 2018, and March 31, 2021.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Since 2015, the risks of dying due to drug-related causes are higher in prison than in the general population, with opiates and psychoactive substances being the most common substances recorded on death certificates in prison. Many individuals use drugs before entering the prison environment, it is not clear which individuals continue to use drugs while in prison. This study is a first step towards identifying characteristics of those who use drugs in prison, while exploring substances commonly used.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Smoking rates are known to be higher amongst those committed to prison than the general population. Those in prison suffer from high rates of comorbidities that are likely to increase their risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), making it more difficult to manage. In 2016, a tobacco ban began to be implemented across prisons in England and Wales, UK.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough limited, global evidence suggests that the cardiometabolic health of those in prison is poorer than their community peers. Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is a public health challenge and community rates are continuing to rise. Given that cardiometabolic risk factors are prevalent amongst younger individuals within the prison population, it is reasonable to assume that the prison environment will also experience an increase in new cases of T2DM.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The health of people in prisons is a public health issue. It is well known that those in prison experience poorer health outcomes than those in the general community. One such example is the burden of non-communicable diseases, more specifically cardiovascular disease (CVD), stroke and type 2 diabetes (T2DM).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Aim To identify the experiences related to adaptation for people living with HIV in Greece and to explore different adaptation stages as well as their individual reactions.
Background: Receiving an HIV positive diagnosis leads to major changes in an individual's life and it can trigger an array of emotions including fear, despair and loss of control. As the profile of the disease has changed due to its transition into a chronic disease and extended life expectancy, adaptation to life and coping with uncertain events is of paramount importance.
Background: Viral hepatitis is a leading cause of death worldwide. The World Health Organisation introduced a target to reduce hepatitis C virus (HCV) as a public health threat by 2030. Testing and treatment of those at elevated risk of infection in prison is key to achieving disease elimination.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Prison Health
September 2019
Purpose: Those in prison have expert knowledge of issues affecting their health and wellbeing. The purpose of this paper is to report on work undertaken with male prisoners. This paper presents learning and findings from the process of engaging imprisoned men as peer researchers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFData on hepatitis B vaccination coverage across prisons in Wales 2013-2017 were analysed to describe coverage of one dose, and the full hepatitis B vaccine course for men in prison. Whilst vaccination coverage increased in both short and long stay prisons, annual coverage was consistently lower in short stay prisons compared to long-stay prisons, despite short-stay prisons delivering a higher numbers of vaccine doses. The exception of this pattern was in 2017, at a time of global vaccine shortage.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Prison populations are considered at elevated risk of blood borne virus (BBV) transmission. Between December 2015 and February 2016, four new cases of HIV infection were diagnosed across two male vulnerable prisoner (VP) custodial units in Wales, UK. Cases were identified through routine BBV testing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Public Health (Oxf)
February 2020
Background: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major global public health issue and in low-incidence countries guidance identifies the need to screen for and treat latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) with the prison environment recommended as a setting to perform LTBI screening. This study describes the findings of a LTBI screening programme which took place on entry to a remand prison in the UK.
Methods: Testing for LTBI was undertaken alongside screening for blood borne viruses in 567 men.
Background: The prevalence of hepatitis C (HCV) is elevated within prison populations, yet diagnosis in prisons remains low. Dried blood spot testing (DBST) is a simple procedure for the detection of HCV antibodies; its impact on testing in the prison context is unknown.
Methods: We carried out a stepped-wedge cluster-randomized control trial of DBST for HCV among prisoners within five male prisons and one female prison.
Over the past decade, as the profile of hepatitis B and C has been raised, a range of nurse-led services has been developed among substance misuse services, prisons and homeless services to reach those at the highest risk of infection. In the UK, it is estimated that up to two-thirds of people with hepatitis C are unaware of their infection (Cornberg et al, 2011). These patients represent those at the highest risk of developing cirrhosis and liver cancer, and many are unlikely to be in contact with services that offer routine testing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRoy's adaptation model outlines a generic process of adaptation useful to nurses in any situation where a patient is facing change. To advance nursing practice, nursing theories and frameworks must be constantly tested and developed through research. This article describes how the results of a qualitative grounded theory study have been used to test components of the Roy adaptation model.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Prison Health
November 2015
Purpose: This paper aims to describe the strategies being put in place to develop blood borne virus (BBV) services across prisons in Wales, UK, in response to the recommendations for prisons within the Welsh Government's Blood Borne Viral Hepatitis Action Plan for Wales.
Design/methodology/approach: A task and finish group was established to ensure multidisciplinary engagement between healthcare and custody staff. A service improvement package was developed focusing on awareness raising and/or development of clinical services for prisoners, prison officers and prison healthcare staff.
J Assoc Nurses AIDS Care
September 2013
Glaser's (1978) grounded-theory method was used to investigate the transitional process of adapting to life with HIV. Semistructured interviews took place with 8 male HIV-infected participants recruited from a clinic in South Wales, United Kingdom. Data analysis used open, substantive, and theoretical coding.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrisons provide an ideal setting in which to carry out blood-borne virus testing among a high-risk population. This paper describes a nurse-led testing programme offered to all prisoners within the substance misuse unit at a local prison in South Wales over a 4-year period. Challenges to organizing such a clinic within the prison setting are discussed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of this paper is to examine the role of qualitative research in the development of the Roy adaptation model. An exploration of the findings from qualitative research using Roy's adaptation model from 1995 to 2005 is compared with the findings and recommendations from a previous review over a 25-year period (1970-1995). The usefulness of qualitative methods in furthering nursing theory is highlighted.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF