Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The purpose of this study was to collect baseline data on the physical health of sentenced male prisoners, to assess their physical needs, to investigate health-related behaviour, to assess the extent and nature of physical disorder and to compare them with men of equivalent age in the general population. Comparisons were made with the general population using the data for the <i>Health Survey for England, 1993</i> carried out by OPCS (held at the Data Archive under SN:3316).

Main Topics:

The topics covered in this study include : socio-demographic variables, (age, ethnic group, nationality status, income, socio-economic status, educational qualifications, employment history); length of sentence; living conditions prior to sentence; whether respondent had spent time in local authority care or youth custody institution before the age of 16 years; respondent's general health and medical conditions; use of health services (in prison and NHS); smoking; alcohol use; physical activity and exercise; diet; drug use; clinical measurements and details, such as height; weight; blood pressure; lung function and medication.

Multi-stage stratified random sample

Face-to-face interview

Clinical measurements

Physical measurements

CAI was used