Prison Duration and Sport Participation as Predictors of Quality of Life Perception among Inmates of Ilesa Prison in Osun State of Nigeria

Background: It is widely believed that prison duration determines the state of wellbeing and personality of inmates. It was generally agreed that inmates’ emotional states, health and conduct in the institutions generally improved and reduced over time. The question is: will sport participation and prison duration affect inmate’s perceptions of their quality of life? The study is aimed at investigating the interactive effect of sport participation and duration of imprisonment on the perceived quality of life among inmates in Ilesa Prison in Osun State of Nigeria.

Methods: The study employed experimental pretest – posttest control research design. This study was carried out over a 10 week period at the Ilesa prison in Osun State, Nigerian. 140 inmates were selected for the study. The respondents were grouped into the three durations of imprisonment of 1-5, 6-10 and above 10 years. The World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale (WHOQOL-BREF) was adapted and used to determine the inmates’ perception of their quality of life.

Analysis: The data collected were analysed against the categories of duration of imprisonment (1-5, 6-10 and above 10 years) of the respondents with descriptive and inferential statistics. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine whether differences observed on the interactive effects of the duration of imprisonment (years already spent in prison and expected years of release) and sports participation on the perceived QOL measurements are significant.

Results: The study showedthat the calculated F-ratio of 11.701 for inmates perception of their quality of life was significant at p=0.000 when tested at 0.05 level of significance for respondents within 1-5 years of imprisonment; the calculated F-ratio of 8.125 for inmates perception of their quality of life was significant at p=0.000 when tested at 0.05 level of significance for respondents within 6-10 years of imprisonment and the calculated F-ratio of 10.408 for inmates perception of their quality of life was also significant at p=0.023 when tested at 0.05 level of significance for respondents within over 10 years of imprisonment.

Conclusion: It was concluded that there is duration of imprisonment (years already spent in prison and expected years of release) and sport participation are determinants of general quality of life among inmates of Ilea prison in Onus State of Nigeria.