Aging Prisoners in Switzerland: An analysis of Their Health Care Utilization.

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UNIL restricted access
State: Public
Version: Final published version
License: Not specified
Serval ID
serval:BIB_E6BEFE792F3E
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Aging Prisoners in Switzerland: An analysis of Their Health Care Utilization.
Journal
Journal of aging and health
Author(s)
Wangmo T., Meyer A.H., Handtke V., Bretschneider W., Page J., Sommer J., Stuckelberger A., Aebi M.F., Elger B.S.
ISSN
1552-6887 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
0898-2643
Publication state
Published
Issued date
04/2016
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
28
Number
3
Pages
481-502
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Publication Status: ppublish
Abstract
This study assessed health care utilization of aging prisoners and compared it with that of younger prisoners.
Health care utilization comprised visits to general practitioners (GPs), nurses, and mental health professionals (MHPs) for a period of 6 months. Using retrospective study design, data were extracted from medical records of 190 older prisoners (50 years and older) and 190 younger inmates (18-49 years). Age group was a dichotomous predictor variable with type of sentencing and time spent in prison as covariates. Descriptive statistics and generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) were performed.
For each of the three outcome variables, two GLMMs were constructed. The first model only included age group as the predictor variable (3 × Unadjusted models). The second included the two covariates in addition to the predictor variable (3 × Adjusted model). Results from the adjusted model indicate that visits to GPs significantly differed between the two age groups (p = .022). Older prisoners visited GPs 1.43 times more often than younger prisoners over the 6-month period (adjusted risk ratio [RR] = 1.43, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.05, 1.94]). The finding for visits to nurses was not statistically significant (p = .080). However, older prisoners visited nurses 1.36 times more frequently (adjusted RR = 1.36, 95% CI = [0.96, 1.91]). Finally, older prisoners visited MHPs 1.24 times more often than younger prisoners (adjusted RR = 1.24, 95% CI = [.95, 1.61]) and this finding was also not statistically significant (p = .11).
Study findings underline that older prisoners utilized health care more often than younger prisoners although in most models the finding did not reach statistical significance. The prison system must develop solutions to address the needs of an aging population, particularly those with physical and mental health problems.

Keywords
Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Humans, Middle Aged, Patient Acceptance of Health Care/statistics & numerical data, Prisoners/statistics & numerical data, Retrospective Studies, Switzerland, Young Adult, aging in prison, health care utilization, older prisoners, prisoner
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
13/09/2015 21:10
Last modification date
20/08/2019 16:09
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