Evaluation of the impact of family relations on prisoners’ health in Spain

OBJECTIVES: Literature on this issue has shown a high prevalence of alcohol and other drug use in the prison population. Although many risk factors have been linked to this behavior in prison, it is not common to find research that analyses the influence of family/social contact in prison. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A cross-sectional study was carried out on 2,709 inmates (2,484 men and 225 women) in 9 prisons in Spain, data was collected through self-report questionnaires, including information at socio-demographic level, family-social contact and use of alcohol and other drugs in the last month in prison. RESULTS: Inmates with no family contact in prison show a higher prevalence of use for all the substances analyzed, binary logistic regression analysis shows statistically significant associations with the use of cannabis (OR: 1.86, p ≤0.001) or cocaine (OR: 3.40, p ≤0.001) in prison. DISCUSSION: More knowledge about this public health problem amongst social workers in the prison environment could be an effective diagnostic and preventive tool for reducing the use of alcohol and other drugs during imprisonment.