Imprisonment, community sanctions and mortality by cause of death among patients with substance use disorder – a 28-year follow-up using Finnish register data

Original research
by
Laine, Riku et al

Release Date

2022

Geography

Finland

Language of Resource

English

Full Text Available

Yes

Open Access / OK to Reproduce

Yes

Peer Reviewed

Yes

Objective

Using data on Finnish individuals who had sought treatment for substance use, we studied the association between criminal sanctions with cause-specific mortality.

Findings/Key points

Mortality is low during imprisonment, but not during community sanctions. Mortality after imprisonment is high and attributable to external causes. In the first few weeks post-release, the odds ratio for drug-related death is 8.5. More drug-related deaths among ex-prisoners than others even 2-5 years post-release. Education did not moderate the excess post-release mortality.

Design/methods

The database contained 10887 individuals who had sought treatment between 1990 and 2009. Their treatment data were combined with register data on imprisonments and community sanctions and weekly mortality between 1992 and 2015.
doi.org

Keywords

Mortality
About PWUD
Outcomes
Legal system/law enforcement