Physical health consequences of sexual assault victims.

OBJECTIVE

To describe health consequences of sexual assault victims attending Police General Hospital, Thailand.

DESIGN

Descriptive study with prospective data collection.

SETTING

Police General Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand.

SUBJECTS: Sexual assault victims attending Police General Hospital between October 1, 2004 and September 30, 2005 were recruited All subjects were actual sexual assault cases and came to Police General Hospital within 14 days.

MATERIAL AND METHOD: Each recruited victim was interviewed, physically and forensic medically examined, and screened for sexual transmitted infections (STIs) at first visit, two-week follow-up visit, and three-month follow-up visits. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, including 95% confidence intervals.

RESULTS

There were 377 victims. One of them was male and excluded from the analysis. Most victims were single, 68.8% aged 10-19 years. Non-genital injuries were reported in 32.4% (95% CI, 27.7%, 37.5%) of the victims and 91.0% of these injuries were mild. Only one patient was admitted in the hospital. Genital injuries were found in 43.4% (95% CI, 38.4%, 48.4%) of the victims. At the first visit, 2.9% (95% CI, 0.9%, 4.9%) and 1.1% (95% CI, -0.1%, 2.3%) were infected by N. gonorrhea and Trichomonas vaginalis respectively. At the 2-week follow-up visit, 3.0% (95% CI, 0.7%, 5.3%) and 1.5% (95% CI, -0.2%, 3.2%) were infected by N. gonorrhea and Trichomonas vaginalis respectively. The incidence of pregnancy resulted from sexual assault was 1.7% (95% CI, 0.1%, 3.3%).

CONCLUSION

Most sexual assault victims were teenagers. All physical injuries were of mild to moderate degree. Prevalence of STIs and incidence of pregnancy after sexual assault were very low.