Health morbidity in Brazilian prisons: a time trends study from national databases

The goal of this study was to explore the surveillance data about mandatory reporting diseases, included in the official information systems, and evaluate the historical trend analysis in prisoners in Brazil.

A time trends study was performed using secondary data from prisons' health units.

Nationwide representative data of Brazilian prisoners obtained from 2007 to 2014 health and prison information systems database were analysed. These data are carried out by units identified as prison health facilities.

Diseases diagnosis and individual data were available at the National System of Disease Notification (in Portuguese SINAN), Mortality Information System (in Portuguese SIM) and Prison Registration Systems (in Portuguese INFOPEN and GEO prisons). Analyses of the notification data performed in the SINAN at the national level. SINAN was consolidated with SIM, INFOPEN and GEO prison data.

A total of 23 235 cases of compulsory disease notification causing morbidity were reported in prison units in Brazil; of these cases, 20 003 (85.6%) were men and 3362 (14.4%) were women. Over time, the proportion of prisoners increased from 1.92 per 1000 inhabitants in 2007 to 2.77 per 1000 inhabitants in 2014 (rising trend). From a total of 27 states, 12 of them presented a growth in disease notifications, 14 were stable and in only one state was there a decrease in notifications. There was an increase in notifications in the country as a whole. Tuberculosis (64.4%), dengue (9.1%), AIDS (9.0%) and viral hepatitis (5.9%) were among the most frequently reported diseases during the study period.

Despite showing stable tendencies, our results show high rates of diseases in Brazilian prisons. Prison health services should not be isolated but integrated into regional and national health and justice systems.