Bringing Personality Into the Public Health Conversation: Evidence From a Correctional Population.

Incarceration provides an opportunity for public health interventions, but communication and the delivery of services are complicated by considerable variability even within this generally high-needs population. Public health practitioners have relied heavily on social determinants of health data in their work, but this does not fully explain key patterns in responses and success. Psychometric work related to the "big five" or "five-factor" personality domains may provide important additional guidance to health communications and interventions. The Contraceptive Awareness and Reproductive Education clinical trial provided health risk factor and personality data on 257 incarcerated women aged 18-35. Of the study population, 85.9% reported at least one of the five forms of childhood trauma. Three of the five personality domains were associated with multiple health risk factors and four of the five were associated with fair or poor general health. Personality data provide important guidance in understanding variability in responses to public health interventions in the correctional setting.

Depression among Women Released from Prison or Jail in the United States.

Risk factors for depression among 179 women recently released from prison or jail in a state correctional facility in the northeastern United States were examined in this study. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD-10) was used to measure longitudinal, self-reported depression data. In addition, potential risk factors for depression among women recently released from prison and jail were analyzed. Findings of this study indicated that approximately 83% of the women suffered depression throughout baseline and/or at least one follow up period after release. Significant risk factors for depression among these women included drug use, alcohol use, physical partner abuse, number of living children, and emotional abuse during childhood. Women who used drugs other than marijuana were eight times as likely to suffer from depression compared with women who had never used such drugs.

Changes in Depression and Stress after Release from a Tobacco-Free Prison in the United States.

Prior research has found high levels of depression and stress among persons who are incarcerated in the United States (U.S.). However, little is known about changes in depression and stress levels among inmates post-incarceration. The aim of this study was to examine changes in levels of depression and stress during and after incarceration in a tobacco-free facility. Questionnaires that included valid and reliable measures of depression and stress were completed by 208 male and female inmates approximately eight weeks before and three weeks after release from a northeastern U.S. prison. Although most inmates improved after prison, 30.8% had a worsening in levels of depression between baseline and the three-week follow-up. In addition, 29.8% had a worsening in levels of stress after release than during incarceration. While it is not surprising that the majority of inmates reported lower levels of depression and stress post-incarceration, a sizable minority had an increase in symptoms, suggesting that environmental stressors may be worse in the community than in prison for some inmates. Further research is needed to address depression and stress levels during and after incarceration in order for inmates to have a healthier transition back into the community and to prevent repeat incarcerations.

HIV testing among non-incarcerated substance-abusing juvenile offenders.

Juvenile offenders are a subgroup of adolescents at particular risk for HIV/STI infection. Although HIV prevalence among these youth is low (<1%) in the US, rates of other STIs, unprotected sexual activity, multiple partners, and incidents of substance use during sex are high compared with other adolescent populations. Many of these youth will enter the adult criminal justice system, which is known to have an extremely high rate of HIV infection. US constitutional mandates provide HIV/STI testing for incarcerated juveniles, but close to 80% of juvenile arrestees are never detained. Moreover, although they engage in similar HIV risk behaviors as those detained, they have limited access to available HIV/STI testing services. Thus, our study examined rates of lifetime HIV testing among a pilot sample of 60 court-involved, substance-using juveniles monitored in the community to explore rates of testing and the reasons related to lifetime testing among a high-risk, yet understudied US juvenile population.