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Obstetrics & Gynecology 2007;109:1116-1122
© 2007 by The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Experiences of Physical and Sexual Abuse and Their Implications for Current Health

Ulla Pikarinen, MD1, Terhi Saisto, MD, PhD2, Berit Schei, MD, PhD3, Katarina Swahnberg, PhD4 and Erja Halmesmäki, MD, PhD5

From the 1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, South Karelian Central Hospital, Lappeenranta, Finland; 2Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Helsinki University Hospital, Jorvi Hospital, Espoo, Finland; 3Women's Health Department of Community Medicine/Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, St. Olav's Hospital, Trondheim University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Trondheim, Norway; 4Division of Gender and Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden; and 5Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence of a history of physical and sexual abuse in adulthood among gynecological patients and the association with general and reproductive health.

METHODS: A cross-sectional questionnaire study on abusive experiences of gynecologic outpatients in a tertiary hospital. The total sample size was 691.

RESULTS: Of all women, 42.4% had experienced moderate or severe physical or sexual abuse as an adult. One hundred forty-seven (21.6%) women reported physical abuse, 84 (12.3%) sexual abuse, and 58 (8.5%) both. The abused and nonabused women did not differ in mean age, education, or parity. Sexually abused women and those who were both sexually and physically abused reported poor general health significantly more often (P=.005 and P=.001, respectively) than the nonabused. They also rated their sex life as significantly worse than the nonabused women (P=.002 and P=.012, respectively). Over half of abused women had experienced common physical complaints during the previous 12 months compared with one third of the nonabused (P<.001). Two thirds of both the abused and the nonabused women preferred that their gynecologist not ask directly about abuse.

CONCLUSION: Abusive experiences were common in gynecologic outpatients. Women with abusive experiences had ill health and poor sexual life more often than the controls. In contrast to the results of previous studies, most of the women did not want to be asked about abuse by their gynecologist.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II






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