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  3. Mortality in young offenders: retrospective cohort study
Paper

Mortality in young offenders: retrospective cohort study

BMJ 2003; 326 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.326.7398.1064 (Published 15 May 2003) Cite this as: BMJ 2003;326:1064

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  1. Carolyn Coffey, epidemiologist (carolyn.coffey{at}rch.org.au)1,
  2. Friederike Veit, paediatrician1,
  3. Rory Wolfe, statistician2,
  4. Eileen Cini, research assistant1,
  5. George C Patton, professor director1
  1. 1 Centre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia,
  2. 2 Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia
  1. Correspondence to: C Coffey
  • Accepted 6 March 2003

Abstract

Objectives To estimate overall and cause specific standardised mortality ratios in young offenders.

Design Comparison of mortality data in cohort of young offenders.

Settings State of Victoria, Australia.

Subjects Cohort of young offenders aged 10-20 years with a first custodial sentence from 1 January 1988 to 31 December 1999.

Main outcome measures Deaths ascertained by matching with the national death index, a database containing records of all deaths in Australia since 1980. Death rates in the reference Victorian population used to calculate standardised mortality ratios.

Results The offender cohort comprised 2621 men and 228 women with 11 333 person years of observation. The median age of first detention was 17.9 years for men and 18.4 years for women. Median follow up was 3.3 years for men and 1.4 years for women. Overall standardised mortality ratio adjusted for age (expressed as a ratio) was 9.4 (95% confidence interval 7.4 to 11.9) for men and 41.3 (20.2 to 84.7) for women. Cause specific standardised mortality ratios for men were 25.7 (17.9 to 36.9) for drug related causes, 9.2 (5.8 to 15) for suicide, and 5.7 (3.6 to 9.2) for non-intentional injury. A quarter of drug related deaths in men aged 15-19 years were in offenders.

Conclusions Social policies for young offenders should address both the prevalent drug and mental health problems as well the high levels of social disadvantage.

Footnotes

  • Contributors CC contributed to the conception, design, analysis, interpretation of the data, and drafted the manuscript. FV contributed to the conception, interpretation of data, and manuscript preparation. RW contributed to the design, analysis, interpretation of data, and manuscript preparation. EC was the data manager and contributed to the analysis and to manuscript preparation. GP contributed to the conception, design, analysis, data interpretation, and revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content. All authors gave final approval of the version to be published. In addition, Lyndsey Watson from La Trobe University, assisted with the analysis. CC is the guarantor.

  • Funding Funding: National Health and Medical Research Council Competing Standard Project Grant 105422. The guarantor accepts full responsibility for the conduct of the study, had access to the data, and controlled the decision to publish.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Ethical approval Ethics committees of the Royal Children's Hospital, Victorian Departments of Human Services and Justice, and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

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