The researchers searched the records for keywords such as “incarceration,” “parole” and “jail” to look for signs of justice system involvement, and then compared the records of patients whose medical records contained justice keywords with those of demographically similar patients.
Ultimately, the researchers identified approximately 38,300 patients with justice keywords in their files, or 2.2 percent of the total sample. The overall group was majority white (64 percent). Black patients made up just 12.8 percent of the total group, but 28.2 percent of patients with justice keywords in their records were black.
Justice was also included in the keywords of more than one-third of patients whose medical records indicated they had been in child welfare care.
Patients with justice keywords accounted for 42.9% of all schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders, 42.1% of bipolar and related disorders, 38.3% of suicide and self-harm diagnoses, and were disproportionately represented in diagnoses of physical illnesses, such as neurodevelopmental disorders (69.7%) and shaken baby syndrome (44.9%).
Given that about 7 percent of U.S. youth have experienced parental incarceration, the researchers note that the study’s figures likely “significantly underestimate the actual exposure of incarcerated youth to personal or family incarceration.” The “significant disparities” suggested by their analysis could inform future research, they write.
“If the United States continues to lead in incarceration rates, health care disparities will continue and we will lead the world in poor health outcomes,” Samantha Bock, an assistant professor in the University of Cincinnati School of Nursing and lead author of the study, said in a news release.
