Skip to main content

Table 1 Demographic, detention, and lifestyle characteristics of respondent prisoners

From: Self-reported health status and access to health services in a sample of prisoners in Italy

Characteristic

No.

%

Age, years (623; 95.8)

39.8 ± 10.5§

Marital status (628; 96.6)

  

   Married

363

57.8

   Other

265

42.2

Having dependent children at home (638; 98.2)

  

   None

436

68.3

   Yes

202

31.7

Educational attainment (631; 97.1)

  

   No compulsory education

202

32

   Compulsory education or some degree

429

68

Occupational status before entering prison (643; 98.9)

  

   Employed

444

69

   Unemployed

199

31

Cigarette smoking status (630; 96.9)

  

   Past/Never smoker

205

32.5

   Current smoker

425

67.5

Daily amount of cigarettes smoked by current smokers (425; 65.4)

21.2 ± 12.3§

First-time incarceration (638; 98.2)

  

   No

343

53.8

   Yes

295

46.2

Time served in prison, years (588; 90.5)

6.8 ± 6.4§

Detention status (621; 95.5)

  

   Awaiting trial

115

18.5

   Awaiting sentence

102

16.4

   Serving sentence

404

65.1

Length of sentence, years (397; 61.1)

10 ± 7.9§

History of lifetime drugs use (619; 95.2)

  

   No

434

70.1

   Yes

185

29.9

Type of drugs used prior to incarceration (173; 26.6)*

  

   Cocaine

132

75.9

   Marijuana/Hashish

122

70.1

   Heroin

61

35.1

   Barbiturates/Tranquillizers

29

16.7

   Amphetamine

25

14.4

   Other

70

34.6

History of drugs use within prison (168; 25.8)

  

   No

133

79.2

   Yes

35

20.8

Type of drugs used within prison (34; 5.2)*

  

   Marijuana/Hashish

18

52.9

   Barbiturates/Tranquillizers

16

47.1

   Cocaine

14

41.2

   Heroin

8

23.5

   Ecstasy

3

8.8

   Other

9

26.5

  1. In brackets the number and percentage of the total sample of 650 prisoners responding to the question
  2. *Multiple responses allowed
  3. § Mean ± standard deviation