Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35012501›Full record

ArticleBMC public health2022

Reliability of prisoners' survey responses: comparison of self-reported health and biomedical data from an australian prisoner cohort.

Tony Gerard Butler, Mathew Gullotta, David Greenberg

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMC public health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
0.4field-weighted citation impact, top 40% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed, 2 citations in OpenAlex.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Tony Gerard ButlerSchool of Population Health, University of New South Wales, 2052, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Mathew GullottaSchool of Population Health, University of New South Wales, 2052, Sydney, NSW, Australia. m.gullotta@unsw.edu.au.
David GreenbergStatewide Community Court Liaison Service, Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health Network, 2036, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
UNSW Sydney · AU

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivePrisoner health surveys primarily rely on self-report data. However, it is unclear whether prisoners are reliable health survey respondents. This paper aimed to determine the level of agreement between self-report and biomedical tests for a number of chronic health conditions.

methodThis study was a secondary analysis of existing data from three waves (1996, 2001, 2009) of the New South Wales (NSW) Inmate Health Survey. The health surveys were cross-sectional in nature and included a stratified random sample of men (n=2,114) from all NSW prisons. Self-reported histories of hepatitis, sexually transmissible infections, and diabetes were compared to objective biomedical measures of these conditions.

resultsOverall, the sensitivity (i.e., the respondents who self-reported having the condition also had markers indicative of the condition using biomedical tests) was high for hepatitis C (96%) and hepatitis B (83%), but low for all other assessed conditions (ranging from 9.1% for syphilis using RPR to 64% for diabetes). However, Kappa scores indicated substantial agreement only for hepatitis C. That is, there were false positives and false negatives which occurred outside of chance leading to poor agreement for all other assessed conditions.

conclusionsPrisoners may have been exposed to serious health conditions while failing to report a history of infection. It may be possible that prisoners do not get tested given the asymptomatic presentation of some conditions, were unaware of their health status, have limited health-service usage preventing the opportunity for detection, or are subject to forgetting or misunderstanding prior test results. These findings demonstrate the importance of the custodial environment in screening for health conditions and referral for treatment should this be needed. Testing on entry, periodically during incarceration, and prior to release is recommended.

Indexed as

Diabetes MellitusHepatitis CPrisonersAustraliaHepacivirusHumansMalePrisonsReproducibility of ResultsSelf ReportSurveys and QuestionnairesBiomedicalBlood borne virusesHealth surveysHepatitisObjective testsReliabilitySelf-reportedSexual transmissible infections

Identifiers

PMID35012501
PMCPMC8747873
OpenAlexW4206392547

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.