Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Overweight, Obesity, and Weight Change Among Incarcerated Women

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22899812


 2012 Aug 16. [Epub ahead of print]

Overweight, Obesity, and Weight Change Among Incarcerated Women.

Source

Center for Primary Care and Prevention, Warren Alpert Brown University Medical School at Memorial Hospital, Pawtucket, RI, USA.

Abstract

Excessive weight gain among inmates is frequently observed by correctional health care providers; however, there is little published research on weight change during incarceration. This study describes the weight and weight changes among women incarcerated in a unified correctional system (prison and jail). The women were interviewed and had their height and weight measured. At baseline, 33.0% were of normal weight, 34.9% were overweight, and 32.1% were obese. Participants were reweighed after a median of 14 days; the women had gained an average of 1.1 lbs/week (SD: 2.1 lbs, range: -3.3 to +9.2 lbs) with 71% of women gaining weight. Women incarcerated for 2 weeks or less at time of study enrollment experienced higher average weight weekly gains than those incarcerated longer than 2 weeks (1.7 lbs vs. 0.8 lbs).

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