Caring for Sexual Assault Victims within the Military Healthcare System: Prevalence, Demographics, and Healthcare Service Utilization
Abstract
Sexual assault remains a major concern in the military; however, despite increasing reports made, there has not been coordinated information on the healthcare usage of these service members. The present study examined healthcare utilization within the Military Healthcare System (MHS) to determine the prevalence of sexual assault-related health care provided, demographic patterns among service members receiving said care, and the type of provider seen during the initial sexual assault-related health encounter. Utilizing the MHS Data Repository, all active-duty service members during fiscal years (FY) 2016-2019 were identified and those with asexual assault diagnostic code recorded on a healthcare encounter were isolated. From a total of 1,728,433 active-duty service members identified, 4,113 (0.24 percent) had a sexual assault-related health encounter. In contrast to previous research and DoD reports indicating those who are younger aged are at the highest risk for sexual assault, MHS health encounter data indicated lower rates of sexual assault-related health care compared to peers aged 26 - 40. Females, those in the Army, and enlisted personnel were the most likely to obtain sexual assault-related healthcare. Overall, initial sexual assault-related encounters were more likely to occur with medical providers versus behavioral health indicating medical providers are in a unique position to provide relevant mental health care referrals to survivors. Additional research is warranted to clarify the discrepancies between DoD reports of sexual assaults and these data highlighting decreasing reports of sexual assaults within the medical system and to assess whether there are barriers that inhibit help-seeking.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 08, 2022
- Accession Number
- AD1186118
Entities
People
- Amanda L. Murray
Organizations
- Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences