Healthy prisons: analysis of health promotion in Catalonian prisons

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: There is currently sufficient evidence that health can be created through certain strategies combined and maintained long enough to produce measurable results: this is what is called health promotion. The World Health Organization has promoted programs based on healthy environments; among them we highlight healthy prisons. Living conditions in a penitentiary are extraordinarily specific, and involve limitations that can have significant health consequences. However, prisons can be environments for health, since there is the effective possibility of promoting it. OBJECTIVES: To analyze the implementation of health promotion in prisons in Catalonia. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Retrospective and observational cross-sectional multi-centre study, carried out on a sample of 29 nurses who worked in the closed-regime prisons in Catalonia between 2019 and 2020. The information collection instrument is made up of an ad-hoc questionnaire (Annex 1). A descriptive analysis of the socio-demographic variables and the variables of the study was carried out. A comparative analysis is performed using correlation and linear regression models. RESULTS: 82.8% of those surveyed state that a health promotion project is being carried out in the prison where they work, with mental health being the most carried out programs, followed by tobacco and drug cessation. DISCUSSION: The results show that health promotion policies are currently being developed in the Catalan prison environment.