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The health effects of sexual violence for Australian women: A pilot study

Synopsis

Sexual violence is an important area of research because it is prevalent and a risk factor associated with a negative impact on the health of women worldwide. Violence against women, which includes sexual violence, accounts for the greatest burden of disease for women aged 18-44 in Victoria and is likely to have similar impacts worldwide. Sexual violence is common, affecting 1 in 3 Australian women across a lifetime and has both similar and different antecedents and health sequelae to physical and emotional abuse. Analysing the data from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (WHA), which includes child sexual abuse in addition to other forms of sexual violence, provides an opportunity to develop and extend Australian knowledge in the health impacts associated with child and adult sexual violence and is different from the previous WHA VAW analyses done by Taft et al (2007) and Astbury et al (2010).