Evaluating the association of transferring governance of correctional health care services with overdose and all-cause mortality: a retrospective cohort study in British Columbia, Canada.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In many jurisdictions world-wide, the government agency that manages prisons also provides prison health care services. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations (UN) have recommended that health ministries provide prison health care. In Canada, the province of British Columbia (BC) transferred responsibility for correctional health services to the health ministry in accordance with this guidance. The objective of this study was to estimate the association between the transfer in BC and all-cause and overdose mortality within 1 year of release from prison.

Methods

We used a retrospective cohort study design employing the difference-in-differences (DiD) method to compare mortality among formerly-incarcerated people in the pre- and post-transfe

SUBMITTER: McQuarrie L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12809955 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature