Quality of Life, Health Behavior, and Health Service Needs of Prisoners with Chronic Illness in Province Southern Region

Abstract

Prison inmates are statistically more likely to suffer from chronic diseases that affect health and quality of life. Therefore, this descriptive research was to study the quality of life, health behaviors, and health services needs of prisoners with chronic illness in the southern provinces. The 276 samples were prisoners, simple random sampling from 5 prisons. The instrument included three questionnaires regarding the quality of life, health behaviors, and health service needs. Descriptive statistics analyzed data. The results showed that most of the samples were male, 72.8 %, average age of 45.67 (SD = 11.92), in the prisons, 6.44 (SD = 4.23), and 88.8 % had relatives visiting. The chronic illness was hypertension, diabetes, atherosclerosis, asthma, and heart disease. The poor quality of life (Mean = 58.81, SD =11.03) is consistent with the prisoner quality of life study, in which the staff prioritized the quality of life of minority inmates. The health behaviors were poor (Mean 2.91, SD = 0.41); these may be due to the Department of Corrections having to promote healthy behaviors and treat inmates by the minimum requirements of the nation or The Mandela rules. Finally, the demand for health services needs was high (Mean = 3.62, SD = 0.52) due to the imbalance between what is needed and what is provided by the state, and lifestyle patterns have changed, which has restrictions on activities and limited communication with outside society. Thus, health personnel in prisons should promote and focus on the health behaviors of prisoners with chronic illnesses and provide health services related to their health and needs.