Cardiovascular Disease

Compared to the general population, people with histories of incarceration and their family members have early risk for and higher rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and outcomes. And yet existing scientific infrastructures do not exist to explicate what is putting incarcerated people and their families at risk for CVD. Two SEICHE studies seek to address this gap.

Funded by the American Health Association’s Health Equity Research Network, JUSTResearch builds on an existing partnership between JustLeadershipUSA, a national advocacy organization of formerly incarcerated people, and SEICHE to develop the methodological science around how best to engage incarcerated people and their families in cardiovascular health research and understand factors that may increase their risk for cardiovascular disease through two interrelated projects. InJUSTICE, led by JLUSA, will enroll incarcerated individuals in a study about their cardiovascular health. FamJUSTICE, led by SEICHE, will collect data from the family members of InJUSTICE participants about their cardiovascular health.

Because mass incarceration links to historic and current racial violence and control and its disproportionate impacts on Black communities, JUSTResearch engages iteratively with ethical, historical, and legal concerns of research, and integrate the expertise of people impacted by incarceration. We are also developing a curriculum and build a cadre of formerly incarcerated people and scholars of minoritized backgrounds to lead this research and develop the protocols and practices for a toolkit that can be used by future community-academic partnerships to engage these populations.

This longitudinal observational study of individuals released from a correctional facility is designed to understand the epidemiology of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and unique modifiable mediators of CVD risk factor control in this population which is at high risk for poor cardiovascular outcomes. The central hypothesis is that there are population-specific risk factors, including psychosocial stress from carceral system policies and collateral sanctions following release, that exacerbate poor control of traditional CVD risk factors.