Grant: Project Grant - PA: Equity in Cancer Prevention and Control

Women experiencing imprisonment are more likely to have worse health than women in the general population. This includes being more likely to have cervical cancer, and more likely to have complications in pregnancy. Having better healthcare could make a difference: women who are in prison or have been in prison are less likely to get routine Pap tests to screen for cervical cancer, and are less likely to get basic prenatal care. Although it is clear that women experiencing imprisonment need better healthcare, we do not know how to most effectively achieve this. On October 1st, 2017, in effort to improve healthcare in provincial prisons British Columbia (BC) transferred responsibility for prison healthcare from the Ministry of Public Safety and the Solicitor General to the Ministry of Health. But, we do not know if this change has actually made a difference to improve women's health specifically. We will determine whether transferring responsibility for healthcare to the Ministry of Health improved healthcare for women experiencing imprisonment in BC by looking at two key markers: whether eligible women received routine Pap tests to screen for cervical cancer, and whether women who were pregnant received basic prenatal care. We will compare the rates of receiving this care before and after responsibility for healthcare in provincial prisons was transferred to the Ministry of Health. We will also compare these BC rates to rates of the same healthcare markers in Ontario during the same time period, where no change in responsibility has occurred and the Ministry of the Solicitor General is still responsible for healthcare in provincial prisons. Evaluating the impact of this change can help us understand how to improve healthcare for women who experience imprisonment in BC and around the world.