ONTARIO: Study finds that the medical definition of sexual assault does not capture the magnitude of the problem



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Ontario researchers say that badual badault needs to be defined more broadly in medical settings in order to accurately grasp the magnitude of the problem.

A study published Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health examined reported badual badaults in Ontario hospitals and physician's offices between 2002 and 2016.

ICES researchers, formerly known as the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, reviewed five provincial medical information databases and examined a wide variety of diagnostic and billing codes. .

They discovered that there had been 52,780 cases of badual badault requiring medical treatment during this period, an average of about 3,500 per year.

Lead author of the study, Katherine Muldoon, said that figure would have been much lower if her team had not expanded the criteria used to define badual badault in a medical setting .

She also stated that the number of badual badaults requiring a visit to the hospital or to the doctor still accounted for only a small fraction of the total number of offenses each year, noting that the most victims did not seek treatment.

"We need to think more broadly about the definition of badual badault," said Muldoon, senior research badociate at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, when of a telephone interview.

"There are many ways to avoid cases of badual badault and that is why it is essential to keep a broader perspective and think about this issue more broadly."

Muldoon said that much of the data on badual badault to date has been badyzed from a crime perspective, relying on police reports as well as global and national statistical surveys. .

According to her, the medical data in her study suggest an average of 27 per 100,000, but that would have been much lower if the research team had met the criteria commonly used to define badual badault in a medical setting.

Muldoon said doctors around the world often rely on the same diagnostic code, categorized as "badual badault by physical force", to indicate that an badault had taken place. But she said the latest research illustrated the shortcomings of this approach.

"When I used this code, I found only about 25% of the cases," she said. "Using only this code, there were about 40,000 missing cases."

Muldoon and his fellow researchers broadened their criteria by including other codes reflecting examinations as a result of alleged badaults, as well as bad lesions or badually transmitted infection rates in children.

She added that the inclusion of these other categories provided a much more complete picture of badual badault rates in the province.

Many of their findings have replicated models uncovered by other studies, namely that badual badault occurs at any age and disproportionately affects women and girls.

The researchers found that about 85% of the badaults they found in the data involved female patients, with women and girls being most at risk between the ages of 15 and 24.

The study found that children under four were the most vulnerable, followed by those under 10 years old.

Muldoon said that these findings, as well as cases of badual badault against older adults, point to the need for more resources and research to help people belonging to these demographic characteristics.

She said she hoped to expand her research in the coming years to see if an increase in the number of reported badual badaults documented in the months following the #metoo move had materialized in the medical community .

"So far, more research has been published on the number of searches on the Internet or changes to workplace regulations or police reports that have led to such an increase," he said. she said. "This is an important reason to study."

– Michelle McQuigge, Canadian Press

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