[Trends in mortality in a Spanish prison from 1994-2004].
BACKGROUND
[corrected] Few works have focused on studying mortaty in prisons. The objective here is to study the causes and incidences of mortality in a Spanish prison.


METHODS
Descriptive study of the deaths in a prison between 01-01-1994 and 31-12-2004. The following variables were recorded: sex, date of death, HIV serology, number of CD4+ where relevant, and cause of death according to the following classification: death by HIV, by non-HIV disease, suicide, drug overdose and accidents. After indirect standardisation of incidence, we compared mortality in the Centre with the other Spanish prisons. We established mortaality rate tendencies by a linear regression model.


RESULTS
42 deaths, 41 men, 1 woman. Median age 33.10 years (27.72-36.12; IQR: 8.40). 30 (71.4%) HIV+, with a median of 177 CD4+ lymphocytes/microl. Twenty patients (45.24%) died from HIV, 15 (38.10%) from non-HIV diseases, 3 (7.14%) from suicide, 3 (7.14%) from drug overdose and 1 (2.38%) accidentally. Crude mortality rates corresponded to 12.605% per hundred of inmates/year in 1997 and 1.758%, inmates/year in 2003, with a decreasing trend of 0.976 deaths % per hundred, inmates/year (CI 95%: 0.399-1.552; p = 0.004). After standardising rates, we obtain 28.6 expected deaths daring the period, with an SMR of 1.4679.


CONCLUSIONS
Although it follows a decreasing trend, the mortality rate obtained during the study period was higher than expected. The main cause of mortality was acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.
Remartinez
Enrique Jesús Vera
EJ
Centro Penitenciario de Castellón. enriquevera@ono.com
Planelles Ramos
Manuel Vicente
MV
García Guerrero
Julio
J
D000059:Accidents / Q000401:mortality; D000328:Adult; D002423:Cause of Death; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D062787:Drug Overdose / Q000401:mortality; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000401:mortality; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D011330:Prisons; D013030:Spain; D013405:Suicide