SynthesisBMC public health2025
The effectiveness of non-exposure to incarceration in preventing COVID-19 and mitigating associated events: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in BMC public health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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.
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.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundFor a long time, the penalty of imprisonment has been studied and criticized as ineffective in achieving the goals of resocialization and rehabilitation of offenders, and studies have associated incarceration with increased prevalence of disease. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization recommended decarceration as a prevention measure. The aim of this review was to analyze the effectiveness of non-exposure to incarceration in preventing COVID-19 and mitigating associated events.
methodsWe conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies comparing the adult general population (GP) and incarcerated population (IP).
resultsWe identified 1,334 publications without duplicates and extracted data from 22 studies. We found that COVID-19 incidence was 61% lower in the GP (RR = 0.39 [0.34, 0.45], p < 0.0001). Non-exposure to incarceration was associated with lower age- and sex-adjusted mortality (RR = 0.36, [0.27, 0.49], p < 0.0001). We did not find standardized data on age-adjusted case fatality. The hospitalized GP was older and showed a higher rate of obesity than the hospitalized IP; however, no statistically significant differences were found between the populations for admission to intensive care (RR = 0,91 [0.74, 1.13], p = 0.41) and hospital mortality (RR = 0.81 [0.54, 1.23], p = 0.32). Prevalence of the use of invasive mechanical ventilation was 23% lower in the GP (RR = 0.77 [0.70, 0.84, p < 0.0001).
conclusionNon-exposure to incarceration can be a strategy for preventing the spread of COVID-19 and reduces COVID-19 mortality in younger populations. Despite differences in age distribution and presence of comorbidities among the hospitalized GP and IP, we did not find any statistically significant differences between the two populations across most of the hospital-related outcomes. These findings should be interpreted with caution because it was not possible to determine a cause-and-effect relationship between the COVID-19 outcomes and exposure to incarceration. REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42023446610.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.