General health characteristics, psychological stress of inmates and living environment of a main prison in Sri Lanka

Background: Prison inmates, a deprived community are a part of general population. Understanding of their health characteristics, psychological stress and living environment is important to upgrade the existing situation.
Objectives: To describe sociodemographic data, general health characteristics, psychological stress of prison inmates and living environment of a main prison in Sri Lanka.
Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted among prison inmates of a main prison in Southern Sri Lanka. A self-administered questionnaire, K10 psychological distress scale and a checklist formulated by International Committee of Red Cross for evaluating the living environment and medical records were used to collect data.
Results: There were 845 inmates with a median age of 33 years and 576/845(68.1%) were below 40 years. Majority of them had received school education 816/845(96.6%) and 401/845(47.4%) were skilled workers. There were inmates with a past history of being 560/845(66.2%) smokers, 525/845(62.1%) alcohol, 107/845(12.6%) heroin and 143/845(16.9%) cannabis users. Diabetes mellitus, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, psychiatric disorders, asthma and trauma were reported in 72/845(8.5%), 60/845(7.1%), 27/845(3.2%), 148/845(17.5%), 46/845(5.4%) and 33/845(3.9%) inmates respectively and psychological stress was experienced by 265/845(31.3%). Less number of inmates had communicable diseases. Score of standards for living environment was 50.
Conclusions: Inmates were from young working group of the community. Past history of psychoactive substance use was high. The proportion of inmates with non-communicable diseases was higher than communicable diseases. Living environment of the prison was at an acceptable level.