Perceived health status and satisfaction with healthcare services of detained male individuals: a survey in Italy.

OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the perceived health status and satisfaction with prison healthcare services of detained male individuals in Italy. STUDY DESIGN: A cross-sectional study was performed between March and June 2021. METHODS: Of 800 male detained individuals who were invited to participate in the study, 632 returned the self-administered questionnaire, resulting in a response rate of 79%. RESULTS: Overall, 72.8% of participants reported that they were moderately or completely satisfied with their health status, and 27.2% stated that they were not at all satisfied. Moreover, 66.2% of participants reported that they had at least one health problem or disease, compared with 34% at the time of incarceration, with 35% reporting multiple health problems/diseases. In total, 10.1% of participants requested healthcare when a health problem occurred, and 12.4% were always satisfied with the healthcare that they received. Significant determinants of dissatisfaction with health status were older age, reported health problems/diseases, suicide attempts, emotional problems and no working activity in prison. Significant determinants of dissatisfaction with healthcare services were younger age, health problems at incarceration, suicide attempts and multiple experiences of incarceration. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that detained male individuals have multiple and frequently unmet health needs. Some of the reported health problems or diseases were present at the time of incarceration, but these often worsened and/or increased during detention. This study highlights the need to promote evidence-based intervention to strengthen the role of healthcare services provided in prisons.

Determination of iloprost in 5% dextrose in water solution by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography.

A high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method utilizing absorbance detection was developed for the rapid and precise determination of the stable prostacyclin analogue iloprost in 5% dextrose in water solution (D5W). Samples were prepared for chromatographic analysis by extracting the drug into chloroform, evaporating the solvent, and solubilizing the residue in methanol. The resulting solutions were chromatographed on a Shandon ODS Hypersil column using 0.02 M potassium phosphate (pH 3.0), methanol, and acetonitrile (456:144:400, v/v) at a flow rate of 1.8 mL/min. 2-Naphthoic acid was employed as an internal standard. The detector response at 207 nm was linear (correlation coefficient greater than 0.9998) for concentrations of iloprost from 10 ng on-column, the lower limit of quantitation, up to 7 micrograms on-column. The precision of the method was approximately 5% based on peak area, with a recovery of iloprost from D5W of 87%. Liquid-liquid extraction was found to be superior to solid-phase sorbent extraction as a sample preparation method due to incompatibility of dextrose with the sorbent bed.