Health in Prisons European Database (HIPED)

It is estimated that six million people are incarcerated every year in the WHO European Region. Prison may provide an opportunity to deliver preventive interventions and treatments to people who previously have had limited or no access to health care and healthy living. However, the prevalence of diseases are much higher among prisoners than in the general population.

There is a lack of systematically collected and comparable data on the health of incarcerated people. The Health in Prisons European Database (HIPED), developed by WHO Regional Office for Europe in collaboration with partner organizations, provides an overview of health in prisons according to important public health indicators. The database includes data collected through the National questionnaire for the minimum public health dataset for prisons in the WHO European Region in 2016/2017.

The main purpose of the database is to provide comprehensive, consistent and reliable public health data on prison populations and their health needs across WHO European Region Member States. Furthermore, the database can help support Member States in identifying areas where preventive and treatment efforts are needed.

The database is divided into seven main domains: i) prison population statistics, ii) prisoner mortality statistics, iii) prison health care system, iv) prison environment and risk factors, v) disease screening, vi) prevention of communicable and noncommunicable diseases, and vii) treatment of communicable and noncommunicable diseases. For countries for which national-level data are not available, but data are available for a smaller part of the prison population (such as for regions or research study sample), data are viewable by placing the cursor over the i icon.

This database was produced with the financial assistance of the Government of Finland.