Epidemiological, clinical and imaging characteristics of female prisoners with definite COVID-19 in a prison in the southwest, Iran, 2020

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPH-03-2021-0027
• Published date: 16 December 2021
• Date: 16 December 2021
• Pages: 407-416
• Subject Matter: Health & social care,Criminology & forensic psychology,Prisoner health,Sociology,Sociology of crime & law,Public policy & environmental management,Policing,Criminal justice
• Author: Maryam Dastoorpoor,Narges Khodadadi,Seyed Hamid Borsi,Farkhondeh Jamshidi,Alireza Babaei Farsani,Mehrdad Noorzadeh

Epidemiological, clinical and imaging

characteristics of female prisoners with

definite COVID-19 in a prison in the

southwest, Iran, 2020

Maryam Dastoorpoor, Narges Khodadadi, Seyed Hamid Borsi, Farkhondeh Jamshidi,

Alireza Babaei Farsani and Mehrdad Noorzadeh

Abstract

Purpose –Prisoners areat greater risk of infectious diseases comparedto the general population. While

imprisoned, it is often difficult to observe Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) prevention strategies such as

social distancing. To the authors’ knowledge, no study has been conducted worldwide to examine the

condition of female prisoners with COVID-19. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the

epidemiological, clinical and imaging characteristics of prisoners with COVID-19 in Ahvaz Women’s

Prison (southwest,Iran).

Design/methodology/approach –The data for this descriptive cross-sectional study was collected

using a checklist including epidemiological information, clinical symptoms, X-ray and computed

tomography scan findingsof the chest, underlying diseases and the final status of all female prisoners

whose COVID-19test was positive.

Findings –This study included 139female prisoners with COVID-19 with a mean age of 37.19612.67

years. The most commonunderlying diseases were hypertension (14.4%),obesity (10.8%) and chronic

obstructive pulmonary disease (9.4%). The most common symptoms at the onset of the disease were

myalgia (59.0%), cough(41.0%) and dyspnea (37.4%). The most commonradiological symptoms were

ground-glass opacity (12.9%) and atelectasis (7.2%). In terms of extensionof involvement, both lungs

were involved in 8.6% of patients. In terms of zonal involvement, the lower lobes were more involved

(8.6%). In termsof involvement position, the most common was sub-pleural(10.1%). None of the patients

died.

Originality/value –Because the incidence, morbidity and mortality rate of COVID-19 in the prison

population are likely to differ from those of the public. This study sought to investigate the situation of

prisonerswith COVID-19 in Ahvaz Prison, Khuzestan Province.To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this

is the firstworldwide study in this regard in women’s prisons.

Keywords Health in prison, Prisoners, Prison, Infectious disease, SARS-COV-2,

Clinical and imaging characteristics

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

In December 2019, Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) was first reported in Wuhan, China (Zhu

et al.,2020

). On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a

pandemic. According to the WHO, the most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever,

fatigue, dry cough and dyspnea. Some patients may also experience runny nose, sore

throat, nasal congestion, abdominalpain and diarrhea. The incubation period of the disease

is estimated to be between 2 and 14 days. The disease affects a wide range of ages.

(Informationabout the

authorscan be found at the

end of this article.)

Received 10 April 2021

Revised 8 July 2021

11 October 2021

20 October 2021

1 November 2021

Accepted 3 November 2021

Author contribution: The

authors acknowledge the

cooperation of all participants

in this study.

Funding: This study was

funded and supported by

Ahvaz Jundishapur University

of Medical Sciences, Grant

No. OG-9934.

Ethical approval and consent to

participate: Ethics license of

this study was acquired from

the Ethics Committee of Ahvaz

Jundishapur University of

Medical Sciences (Code of

ethics: IR.AJUMS.

REC.1399.476). Then oral

informed consent was inquired

from the patients to participate

in this study. They were

assured that their information

would remain confidential.

Availability of supporting data:

Data sharing: Participant-level

data are available from the

corresponding author.

Consent for publication: Not

applicable.

Competing interests: The

authors declare that they have

no competing interests.

MN and MD conceived and

designed the project. MD and

MN acquired the data. MD and

SHB analyzed and interpreted

the data. NK, FJ and ABF.

DOI 10.1108/IJPH-03-2021-0027 VOL. 18 NO. 4 2022, pp. 407-416, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1744-9200 jINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRISONER HEALTH jPAGE 407