Preventive measures against risk factors for cardiovascular diseases in the prison environment: an integrative review

Abstract

Objective: to analyze preventive measures against risk factors for cardiovascular diseases in the prison environment. Methods: integrative review carried out in the databases MEDLINE/PubMed, Web of Science, SCOPUS, CINAHL, LILACS, EMBASE, and SciELO. The descriptors and keywords used, combined with the Boolean operators OR and AND were: prisons, prisoners, health promotion, health education, cardiovascular diseases, heart diseases and heart. We included articles in English, Portuguese, or Spanish, that addressed preventive measures against the risk of cardiovascular diseases in the prison environment, with no specific time frame. Results: the final sample included seven articles. Preventive measures found were related with exercising, nutritional improvement, weight control, smoking cessation, stress control, and laboratory follow up, focusing specially in physical activities and nutritional improvement. Conclusion: identifying preventive measures can aid in the development of health promotion actions for the population deprived of freedom. Nonetheless, more studies on the topic are required. Contributions to practice: understanding the preventive measures against risk factors for cardiovascular diseases used in the prison environment can give support to the developing of health promotion interventions.