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| Majority of older adults in jail have distressing health symptoms |
| By sciencedaily.com |
| Published: 09/01/2016 |
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More than 550,000 adults 55-years-old and older are arrested and detained every year -- and that number is increasing rapidly. Yet we know very little about the special health burdens in this population. In a first of its kind study, researchers report that two-thirds of incarcerated older adults experience at least one health-related distressing symptom, such as a chronic disease, physical pain, or emotional suffering. In the study, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, interviewed 125 inmates age 55 and older from an urban county jail. Typically, researchers consider people aged 65 and older to be "older adults." But for this study, younger people were included because it is common for prisoners to experience "accelerated aging" due to lifelong stressful events, including homelessness and lack of health care, said the researchers. The participants ranged in age from 55- to 87-years-old. A majority of participants (86 percent) reported incomes far below the federal poverty line (a measure of income used to help identify people who are living in poverty). Of the participants, a significant majority of respondents said they had at least one symptom of physical distress (44 percent), psychological distress (56 percent), extreme loneliness (45 percent), and/or concerns about their personal dignity (54 percent). Read More. |
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