CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 31Ethics in Clinical ResearchCriminal Justice and Corrections AnalysisEthics and bioethics in healthcare

Ethical guidance for health research in prisons in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review

Open access
Ako, T., Plugge, E., Mhlanga-Gunda, R., Van Hout, M.C.·2020·Public Health
DOI 10.1016/j.puhe.2020.07.008PMC PMC7449980
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Objectives This study examined the extent, range and nature of the published literature, prison policies and technical guidance relating to the ethical conduct of health research in prisons in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Study design Scoping Review. Methods We adhered to the five stages of the scoping review iterative process: identifying the research question, identifying relevant studies, study selection, charting the data, and collating, summarizing and content analysis of polices. Disagreements around allocation of content were resolved through team discussion. We also appraised the quality of the included articles. Results We included nine records that examined the ethical aspects of the conduct of health research in prisons in LMICs; eight of these were peer-reviewed publications, and one was a toolkit. Despite the unique vulnerabilities of this group, we could find no comprehensive guidelines on the ethical conduct of health research in prisons in LMICs. Conclusions The majority of the world's imprisoned populations are in LMICs, and they have considerable health needs. Research plays an important role in addressing these needs and in so doing, will contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. With regards to health research, imprisoned people in LMICs are 'left behind'; there is a lack of clear, prison-focused guidance and oversight to ensure high quality ethical health research so necessary in LMICs. There is an urgent need for prison health experts to work with health research ethics experts and custodial practitioners for procedural issues in the development of prison-specific ethical guidance for health research in LMICs aligned with international standards.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.puhe.2020.07.008

Cites

2 of 2 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • A significant number of prisons fall below the standard of good provisions worldwide.

    “However, a significant number of prisons fall below this standard worldwide (Ako et al ., 2020).”

    From Group-based mindfulness interventions in prisons: a selective critical review (2024) · cites this paper as Ako et al., 2020

    The Background (page unavailable) says prisoners’ basic health needs may be neglected and that prison healthcare faces insufficient resources. It does not establish that a significant number of prisons worldwide fall below a specified standard of provision. (LLM, conf=0.78)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 31

  1. [3]Fazel S. Seewald K. Severe mental illness in 33,588 prisoners worldwide: systematic review and meta-regression analysis Br J Psychiatry 200 5 2012 364 373 22550330
  2. [4]Fazel S. Yoon I.A. Hayes A.J. Substance use disorders in prisoners: an updated systematic review and meta-regression analysis in recently incarcerated men and women Addiction 112 10 2017 1725 1739 28543749 PMC5589068
  3. [5]Dolan K. Wirtz A.L. Moazen B. Ndeffo-Mbah M. Galvani A. Kinner S.A. Global burden of HIV, viral hepatitis, and tuberculosis in prisoners and detainees Lancet 388 10049 2016 1089 1102 27427453
  4. [6]Spaulding A.C. Eldridge G.D. Chico C.E. Morisseau N. Drobeniuc A. Fils-Aime R. Smoking in correctional settings worldwide: prevalence, bans, and interventions Epidemiol Rev 40 1 2018 Jun 1 82 95 29746635 PMC5982806
  5. [7]Herbert K. Plugge E. Foster C. Doll H. Prevalence of risk factors for non-communicable diseases in prison populations worldwide: a systematic review Lancet 379 9830 2012 1975 1982 22521520
  6. [8]Bard E. Knight M. Plugge E. Perinatal health care services for imprisoned pregnant women and associated outcomes: a systematic review BMC Pregnancy Childbirth 16 1 2016 285 27680206 PMC5041517
  7. [9]Plugge E. Stürup-Toft S. O'Moore É J. Møller L. WEPHREN: a global prison health research network Int J Prison Health 13 2 2017 Jun 12 65 67 28581374
  8. [10]Mhlanga-Gunda R. Motsomi-Moshoeshoe N. Plugge E. Van Hout M.C. Challenges in ensuring robust research and reporting of health outcomes in sub-Saharan African prisons Lancet Glob Health 8 1 2020 Jan e25 e26 31839134
  9. [11]Ahalt C. Haney C. Kinner S. Williams B. Balancing the rights to protection and participation: a call for expanded access to ethically conducted correctional health research J Gen Intern Med 33 5 2018 May 764 768 29404944 PMC5910351
  10. [12]McDermott B.E. Coercion in research: are prisoners the only vulnerable population? J Am Acad Psych Law 41 1 2013 8 13 23503171
  11. [14]Moser D.J. Arndt S. Kanz J.E. Benjamin M.L. Bayless J.D. Reese R.L. Coercion and informed consent in research involving prisoners Compr Psychiatr 45 1 2004 Jan-Feb 1 9 14671730
  12. [15]World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki - ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects 2018 WMA 15835069
  13. [16]Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS) 4th ed. International ethical guidelines for health-related research involving humans 2016 CIOMS Geneva 40523065
  14. [18]Byrne M.W. Conducting research as a visiting scientist in a women's prison J Prof Nurs 21 4 2005 Jul-Aug 223 230 16061169 PMC1455477
  15. [19]Fox K. Zambrana K. Lane J. Multivariate comparison of male and female adolescent substance abusers with accompanying legal problems J Crim Justice Educ JCJE 22 2 2011 304 327 PMC3113474 21686313
  16. [22]Wakai S. Shelton D. Trestman R.L. Kesten K. Conducting research in corrections: challenges and solutions Behav Sci Law 27 5 2009 742 752 19743521
  17. [24]Shaw D.M. Wangmo T. Elger B.S. Conducting ethics research in prison: why, who, and what? J bioeth Inq 11 3 2014 275 278 24996631
  18. [25]Pont J. Ethics in research involving prisoners Int J Prison Health 4 4 2008 184 197 19061061
  19. [28]Levac D. Colquhoun H. O'Brien K.K. Scoping studies: advancing the methodology Implement Sci 5 2010 69 20854677 PMC2954944
  20. [31]Arcega P. Cabantac C. Cruz R. Trends in health research ethics in the Philippines during the American Colonial Period (1898-1946) Develop World Bioeth 19 2019 1 6 30983112
  21. [32]Dube V. Navigating the libido dominandi: intricate realities of forensic psychiatry research ethics in Zimbabwe. J Psychiatry.18(1):209-215.
  22. [33]Gessert C. McCarty C. Research in prisons: an eye for equity Ophthalmic Epidemiol 20 1 2013 23350549
  23. [36]Taborda J. Arboleda-Flórez J. Forensic psychiatry ethics: expert and clinical practices and research on prisoners Rev Bras Psiquiatr 28 2006 S86 S92 17143450
  24. [37]Tangwa G.B. Research with vulnerable human beings Acta Trop 112s 2009 S16 S20 19699174
  25. [38]Zenilman J. The Guatemala sexually transmitted disease studies: what happened Sex Transm Dis 40 4 2014 277 279 23486488
  26. [40]Cisloa A. Challenges and solutions for conducting research in correctional settings: the U.S. experience Int J Law Psychiatr 36 2013 304 310 23683885
  27. [41]Van Hout M.C. Mhlanga-Gunda R. Contemporary women prisoners health experiences, unique prison health care needs and health care outcomes in sub Saharan Africa: a scoping review of extant literature BMC Int Health Hum Right 18 1 2018 31 PMC6080512 30081894
  28. [42]Van Hout M.C. Mhlanga-Gunda R. 'Mankind owes to the child the best that it has to give': prison conditions and the health situation and rights of children incarcerated with their mothers in sub-Saharan African prisons BMC Int Health Hum Right 19 1 2019 Mar 5 13 PMC6402132 30836967
  29. [43]Crowley D. Van Hout M.C. Lambert J.S. Kelly E. Murphy C. Cullen W. Barriers and facilitators to hepatitis C (HCV) screening and treatment-a description of prisoners' perspective Harm Reduct J 15 1 2018 62 30538000 PMC6288965
  30. [44]Baillargeon J. Penn J.V. Knight K. Harzke A.J. Baillargeon G. Becker E.A. Risk of reincarceration among prisoners with co-occurring severe mental illness and substance use disorders Adm Policy Ment Health 37 4 2010 367 374 19847638
  31. [45]Fox A.D. Anderson M.R. Bartlett G. Valverde J. Starrels J.L. Cunningham C.O. Health outcomes and retention in care following release from prison for patients of an urban post-incarceration transitions clinic J Health Care Poor Underserved 25 3 2014 1139 1152 25130230 PMC4138598

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Ako, T., Plugge, E., Mhlanga-Gunda, R., & Van Hout, M. C.
Affiliations
  • Public Health England (GB)
  • University of Zimbabwe (ZW)
ORCID
Venue
Public Health
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2020-09
Volume
186
Pages
217-227
ISSN
0033-3506 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.puhe.2020.07.008
PMC
PMC7449980
OpenAlex
W3081956967
Cited by
31
References
2
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 2
FWCI
0.67
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Public Health (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Liverpool John Moores University (submittedVersion)
  • ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) (submittedVersion)
Funders
Medical Research Council (MC_PC_MR/R024278/1)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Ethics in Clinical Research
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Ethics and bioethics in healthcare
Keywords
research ethics, prison health, prisoners, low- and middle-income countries, prison policy, research ethics oversight, vulnerable populations
MeSH terms
Developing Countries, Humans, Prisons, Guidelines as Topic, Biomedical Research

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review