Ex-prisoners Experience Higher Mortality Rate Than General Population

Main Category: Public Health
Also Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 16 Oct 2008 - 10:00 PDT

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Underscoring their medical vulnerability and the need to improve correctional and community preventive health services, a new study found that ex-prisoners are at greater mortality risk than the general population.

Using North Carolina prison records with state death records from 1980 to 2005, researchers studied a total of 168,001 black and white male former prisoners aged 20 to 69 years. They discovered that deaths from homicide, accidents, substance abuse, HIV, liver disease, and liver cancer were greater than would have been expected of the general population. In addition, deaths from cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, respiratory diseases, and diabetes were at least 30 percent greater than expected for white ex-prisoners, but less than expected for black ex-prisoners.

Researchers stated, "The public health implications of these findings for the United States is troubling given the large size of the U.S. ex-prisoner population, the heavy burden of disease among prisoners, and the legal sanctions and social stigma that diminish access to resources after release from prison."

"All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality Among Men Released From State Prison, 1980-2005"
David L. Rosen, Victor J. Schoenbach, David A. Wohl
American Journal of Public Health, 10.2105/AJPH.2007.121855
Click here to view Abstract online

The American Journal of Public Health is the monthly Journal of the American Public Health Association (APHA), the oldest and most diverse organization of public health professionals in the world. APHA is a leading publisher of books and periodicals promoting sound scientific standards, action programs and public policy to enhance health.

www.ajph.org

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