NCJ Number
149609
Date Published
1993
Length
138 pages
Annotation
This study correlated the characteristics of 1,051 Federal Bureau of Prison (BOP) inmates over 50 years of age with the number of medical encounters for selected morbidities to determine their health utilization over a 6- month period.
Abstract
Total medical encounters represented the dependent variable; independent variables included age, sex, race, and length of sentence, as well as number of medical encounters for noninsulin dependent diabetes, insulin dependent diabetes, arteriosclerotic heart disease, hypertension, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Multiple regression analysis techniques were used for a predominantly white (78.7 percent) and male (93 percent) inmate population whose mean age was 57.12 years. These inmates showed increased health care utilization due to the following variables, in order of importance: hypertension, arteriosclerotic heart disease, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, length of sentence, and age. Hypertension accounted for 19.2 percent of total medical encounters. Sex and race were not significant predictors of health care utilization. There was a negative relationship between length of sentence and total medical encounters but a positive relationship between age and total medical encounters. Age and health appeared to be more closely related to white elderly than to black elderly inmates. Appendixes contain the BOP Outpatient Morbidity Classification Encounter Form and Person's product-moment correlation data. 167 references and 15 tables