INFORMATION ABOUT HEALTH RISKS IN PRISON - EVALUATION OF A BROCHURE

An illustrated full colour brochure has been elaborated for Swiss pris oners. This brochure, named ''Hygiene and Health in detention'', conce rns transmissible diseases in general and AIDS in particular. It is me ant to replace typed A4 sheets which were not generally read. The eval uation of the brochure took place in a Swiss prison on the basis of 22 questions put to inmates during interviews. Answers of inmates having received the old sheet were compared with answers of inmates who rece ived the new brochure. The evaluation concerning the informations' pre sentation is positive. The brochure is more attractive than the A4 she et thanks to its illustrated and coloured presentation (chi-square=6.5 2, p=0.01). Prisoners remember having received the brochure more than the old sheet (chi-square=10.02, p=0.001). More prisoners have read th e folder than the A4 sheet (chi-square=4.22, p=0.04). The evaluation I nmates do not appear to have assimilated the medical information any b etter than from the old A4 sheet.