Browsing by Author "Ramaswamy, Megha"

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    Correlates of Preincarceration Health Care Use Among Women and Men in Jail.
    (Journal of correctional health care : the official journal of the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, 2015-07) Ramaswamy, Megha; Diaz, Francisco; Pankey, Tyson; Hunt, Suzanne L; Park, Andrew; Kelly, Patricia J
    Although women and men in jails bear a burden of health problems, little is known about factors associated with their health care use. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of preincarceration health care use with 596 jail inmates. Descriptive statistics and correlates of participants' health care use were assessed. A year before incarceration, 54% of participants used an emergency room, 24% were hospitalized, and 39% used primary care. Correlates of health care use included gender, health insurance status, and drug dependence. For participants without mental health problems, use was associated with living in neighborhoods where a higher percentage of residents did not complete high school. Findings suggest individual and community factors that can be targeted by reentry programs to improve health care use after jail.
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    Incarcerated women's HPV awareness, beliefs, and experiences
    (International Journal of Prisoner Health, 2015-03-16) Pankey, Tyson; Ramaswamy, Megha
    Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore incarcerated women's awareness, beliefs, and experiences with human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and vaccination. Design/methodology/approach – Researchers conducted focus groups with 45 incarcerated women in an urban Midwestern US jail to assess how women talked about their Papanicolaou (Pap) test screening and abnormal Pap test follow-up experiences. Some focus group questions specifically assessed individual awareness, beliefs, and experiences with HPV infection and vaccination. Based on these data, the authors described participants’ awareness of HPV, as well as used open coding to ultimately extract themes related to beliefs and experiences with HPV infection and vaccine. Findings – While all 45 participants reported experiencing an abnormal Pap test event within the last five years, only two-thirds of participants (n=30) reported having heard of the HPV infection. Several themes emerged from the analysis of the data: the women's beliefs about cause and severity of HPV; frustration with age requirements of the vaccine; varied experiences with vaccinations for themselves and their children; the impact of media exposure on knowledge; and desire for more HPV infection and vaccine information. Originality/value – Incarcerated women's awareness and limited experiences with HPV infection and vaccination may be a barrier to adequate screening and cervical cancer prevention. This study has implications for the development of cervical health education for this high-risk group of women, who are four to five times as likely to have cervical cancer as non-incarcerated women.