Abstract
To characterize the sociodemographic profile of women victims of sexual violence treated at a university hospital in southern Brazil. The present cross-sectional study included all female victims of sexual violence who attended the sexual violence unit at the Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA, in the Portuguese acronym) from April 18, 2000 to December 31, 2017. Data were extracted from the electronic record of the patients and stored in a standardized questionnaire database with epidemiological aspects of the victim, the perpetrators and the type of aggression. Statistical analysis was performed using the chi-squared test for trend and descriptive statistics with 95% confidence interval (CI). During the length of the study, 711 women victims of sexual violence were treated. The mean age of the patients was 24.4 (±10) years old (range from 11 to 69 years old) and most of the victims were white (77.4%), single (75.9%) and sought care at the unit within 72 hours after the occurrence (80.7%). In most cases, violence was exerted by a single perpetrator (87.1%), who was unknown in 67.2% of cases. Victims < 19 years old showed a higher risk of not using contraception (relative risk [RR] = 2.7; 95% CI = 1.9-3.6). Most victims of sexual violence were treated within 72 hours of the occurrence. The majority of these victims were white and young, and those < 19 years old had a higher risk of not using contraception and to know the sexual perpetrator.
Highlights
Violence against women is defined as “any act based on gender that causes death, harm or physical, sexual or psychological distress to women, whether in the public or the private sphere,” or as “any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual comments or advances, or acts to traffic, or otherwise directed, against a person’s sexuality using coercion, by any person, regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting, including but not limited to home and work.”[1,2] This type of violence has been a public health problem
Further details of the population characteristics, the characteristics of violence and the provided care given at the first visit are described in ►Tables 1, 2 and 3, respectively
The victims of violence seen at the Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA) were mostly white, with a mean age of 24.4 years old
Summary
Violence against women is defined as “any act based on gender that causes death, harm or physical, sexual or psychological distress to women, whether in the public or the private sphere,” or as “any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual comments or advances, or acts to traffic, or otherwise directed, against a person’s sexuality using coercion, by any person, regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting, including but not limited to home and work.”[1,2] This type of violence has been a public health problem. Sexual violence can expose the victims to sexually transmitted infections, to unwanted pregnancy and to emotional problems in the short or long term, for instance, suicide and depression.[3] Twenty to 60% of the victims do not tell anyone or do not seek institutional help to report intimate partner violence.[4] The lack of official data and the underreporting problem are challenging for researchers in this area.[5] Data from specialized centers for the care of women victims of sexual abuse are scarce.[6]. Around 21.9 women seek health care services for sexual violence every day and there are 14.2 reports of women victims of rape daily.[9]
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