Postrelease mortality among persons hospitalized during their incarceration.
PURPOSE
Health and mortality of people released from incarceration have received increased attention, and yet little is known about the postrelease experiences of those hospitalized during incarceration.


METHODS
For persons incarcerated and released from the North Carolina (NC) state prison system between January 1, 2008, and June 30, 2015, we examined postrelease mortality from 2008 to 2016 by history of prison hospitalization.


RESULTS
Among 111,479 released persons, 0.9% (n = 1010) were hospitalized during their incarceration, and of those, 10.5% (n = 106) died during follow-up compared with 3.2% (3511/110,469) of other released persons. Those hospitalized in prison had a higher postrelease death rate (adjusted hazard ratio: 2.44), a lower 8-year conditional probability of survival (0.80 vs. 0.94), and were more likely to die from chronic causes (79.2% vs. 51.0%) than other released persons. The postrelease standardized mortality rate among men hospitalized in prison was 3.1 times higher than that of those not hospitalized and 7.1 times the rate of all NC men.


CONCLUSIONS
People hospitalized during incarceration constitute a particularly vulnerable, yet relatively easily identifiable priority population to focus health interventions supporting continuity of care after prison release. Yet such efforts may be particularly challenging in NC and other Medicaid non-expansion states.
['Rosen|David L|DL|', 'Kavee|Andrew L|AL|', 'Brinkley-Rubinstein|Lauren|L|']
D000328:Adult D002423:Cause of Death D005260:Female D006760:Hospitalization D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008484:Medicaid D008875:Middle Aged D009026:Mortality D009657:North Carolina D011329:Prisoners D011330:Prisons D012307:Risk Factors D014481:United States
Mortality Medicaid Incarceration release