Managing Technology, Content, and User Experience: An mHealth Intervention to Improve Women's Health Literacy after Incarceration

Abstract

Every year, more than 3.2 million women come into contact with the criminal legal system in the United States. 1 Representing the fastest-growing incarcerated group, women with criminal legal histories are more likely to report chronic conditions, such as cancer, hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes. 2Around 67% of females in jails reported ever having a chronic condition. 3On top of these health issues, many women are affected by sexual trauma, poverty, drug addition, mental illness, and limited access to medical care. 4e majority of incarcerated women are between the ages of 18 and 44. 1 Women with incarceration histories bear a greater burden of sexual and reproductive health problems such as abnormal Pap test histories, cervical cancer, unintended pregnancies, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). 1,5,6In addition, there is a growing number of women in jails and prisons who are 55 and older, a group of women who have lower rates of up-to-date mammograms compared with the general population. 7,8When released from jail, women must face these and other health and social problems as they reorient themselves back into the community. 9,10mmunity reentry presents an opportune moment for health intervention in that it gets women to think about changing circumstances at a high-risk time 11 and may provide women with resources to see those changes through.Researchers have found that women with past criminal legal histories are often savvy health care users, though woefully underinsured in some regions of the U.S. 12 Although most incarcerated women are knowledgeable about behavioral health issues to some extent, many have beliefs about women's health that are outdated, often affected by family, medical, or social beliefs about screening regimens, or in some cases their own trauma histories. 13These women also have multiple barriers to following through on recommended screening and prevention-specifically, their own

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