Pediatric Health and System Impacts of Mass Incarceration, 2009–2020: A Matched Cohort Study
Year: 2024
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: OBJECTIVE: The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world; incarceration's direct and indirect toll on the health and health care use of youth is rarely investigated. We sought to compare the health of youth with known personal or family justice involvement and a matched cohort of youth without known personal/family justice involvement. METHODS: A cross-sectional matched parallel cohort study was conducted. We queried electronic health records on youth (<21 years) with a visit in a large Midwestern pediatric hospital-based institution from January 2009 to December 2020. Youth were located by searching for justice-related (eg, prison, jail) keywords within all clinician notes. Health diagnostic profiles were measured using ICD 9/10 codes. Health care use included total admissions, inpatient days, emergent and urgent visits, and outpatient visits. RESULTS: Across all youth at one institution over an 11-year period, 2.2% (N = 38,263) were identified as having probable personal or family justice-involvement. Youth with personal or familial justice involvement had 1.5-16.2 times the prevalence of mental health and physical health diagnoses across all domain groupings compared to a matched sample and the total population sample. From 2009-2020, approximately two-thirds of behavioral health care and nearly a quarter of all hospital inpatient days were attributed to the 2.2% of youth with probable personal or familial justice system involvement. CONCLUSION: The study illuminates the vast disparities between youth with indirect or direct contact with the criminal legal system and matched youth with no documented contact. Better investment in monitoring and prevention efforts are needed.
Source: Academic Pediatrics
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,000
Funders: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati, National Institutes of Health, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities
OpenAlex ID: W4399245267