Healthy prisons: analysis of health promotion in Catalonian prisons

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.

To analyze the implementation of health promotion in prisons in Catalonia.

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.

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.

The results show that health promotion policies are currently being developed in the Catalan prison environment.