Sexual Assault and Workplace Harassment Can Affect Women's Health for Years: Gunshots

Can a sexual assault increase your risk of high blood pressure even years later? Recent research suggests that yes.

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Fabio Pagani / EyeEm / Getty Images

Can a sexual assault increase your risk of high blood pressure even years later? Recent research suggests that yes.

Fabio Pagani / EyeEm / Getty Images

The trauma caused by sexual assault or harassment is not only hard to forget; it can also have lasting effects on a woman's health. This discovery of a study released on Wednesday supports a growing body of evidence suggesting the link.

In the study of about 300 middle-aged women, an experience of sexual assault was associated with anxiety, depression and lack of sleep. A history of sexual harassment in the workplace was also associated with a lack of sleep and an increased risk of hypertension.

"These are experiences that [a woman] That could have been the case a long time ago … and it can be the full length of a woman's life, "says Rebecca Thurston, lead author of the study, Research Psychologist and Director of Women & Behavioral Health Laboratory of the University of Pittsburgh. .

The data from the study come from a survey of healthy women aged 40 to 60 years old recruited for a study on menopause and cardiovascular disease – and not on sexual harassment or assault. . During their study visits, their blood pressure was monitored, as well as their height and weight.

In particular, the survey asked women whether they had ever been victims of sexual harassment at work. Participants were also asked if they had ever been "forced or forced to have unwanted sexual contact". Women were not asked when these events occurred.

Twenty-two percent reported a history of sexual assault and 19% reported experiencing sexual harassment at work.

Although the size of the sample is small, the results are statistically significant. Women who had been sexually assaulted averaged almost three times more likely to develop depressive symptoms than others. They also had a greater incidence of clinically significant anxiety.

About one in four women who had been sexually assaulted met the criteria for depression, while about one in 10 who was not was depressed.

Those who experienced sexual harassment at work were twice as likely as women who did not develop hypertension. Lack of sleep was also more common.

"These [traumatic experiences] Susan Mason, assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota, is studying the effects of trauma. These really determine the trajectories of people's lives. "

Mason did not participate in this study, but claims that the findings of this study are consistent with those of other researches on the link between trauma and physical or mental health later in life. Intimate partner violence, for example, has been associated with the development of diabetes and hypertension.

Wednesday's study is particularly noteworthy, says Mason, because it includes clinical data – office-based blood pressure checks, for example, and validated diagnostic tools for depression and anxiety – rather to depend exclusively on self-reported diagnoses.

Clinicians, however, do not have the ability to corroborate women's memories of sexual assault or harassment. Thurston mentions the literature on how traumatic memories are treated, demonstrating that discrete events, such as sexual assault, often remain alive, unlike other memories. That's why, she says, she trusts study participants who claim to have lived these experiences.

"If the patient thinks it's important, it's important," says Dr. Valerie Gilchrist, director of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Wisconsin, who has written about screening for cancer. sexual violence in primary care.

She recommends that clinicians ask patients if they have been sexually assaulted, especially in patients who experience significant stress or difficulty with pelvic exams. The authors note that sexual assault and harassment appeared to be less prevalent among this group of women than in national estimates.

The prevalence in their cohort was significantly lower than a 2014 estimate by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to which 19% of American women had been raped and nearly 44% had experienced another form of sexual violence.

Thurston thinks it's because the study has ruled out a good number of women for reasons related to its original intent to search for menopause and cardiovascular disease. Women taking medication for depression were not included, for example, as well as those with serious health problems.

"Sexual assault and sexual abuse are far more common than we think," Thurston said. These are "key toxic stressors for women".

Although the researchers were not surprised that the sexual assault and harassment appeared to be related to the development of mood disorders and lack of sleep, they were impressed by the strength of the body. ;association.

"These should be urgent priorities for public health," said Mason. "How can we address the fundamental ways in which our social structure affects health?"

Mara Gordon is a family physician in Washington, DC, and a health and media researcher at the NPR and the University of Georgetown School of Medicine.