This semester I will be focusing on sexual assault and its negative outcomes on women’s health in relation to physical effects such as hair loss and psychological effects such as suicide attempts, depression, and PTSD. This week I am focusing on the correlation between sexual assault, obesity, and suicide attempts.
The results of numerous studies have shown correlations between sexual assault, suicide attempts and obesity although none have looked at all three in conjunction. The focus of this article is to find the associations between all three factors to help to aid in suicide prevention in both male and female adolescents. Ullman et al. predicts that sexual assault in obese adolescents will result in a higher prevalence of suicidal behavior.
Ullman reviewed data from the National Youth Risk Behavior Surveys (YRBS) for years 2009 and 2011. The YRBS looked at six different behaviors that are related to social problems, disabilities and mortality in adolescents. Students throughout the US were asked to answer questions in relation to violence, drug use, sexual behaviors etc.
The study included approximately 24,709 students between the ages of 14-18. Based on the information from the surveys, such as height and weight, Ullman was able to calculate BMI percentages, which were then used to classify students as obese. They were also able to look at questions in relation to sexual assault and suicide attempts. After analysis of the data the team came up with the following results. Of the 24,709 students they used in the study they found that: 4,000 females were overweight, 4,608 males were overweight, 11% of females had been sexually assaulted, 4.4% of males had been sexually assaulted, 7.6% of the total had attempted suicide in the past 12 months, and more than 2/3 of the students who attempted suicide were female.
Ullman concluded that there was no connection between sexual assault, obesity, and suicide in the females. They did find a correlation between sexual assault and suicide, and between overweight and suicide; however, the suicide risk for sexual assault was not connected to obesity. They did find that women who were sexually assaulted were more likely to be overweight. They believe that more work needs to be done in this area to find out why this is the case. They also concluded that women in general experienced a higher suicide risk than men.
This article provided no new information to me. I think it is interesting to look at sexual assault in relation to obesity and suicide attempts although having studied sexual assault at some length, the connection between sexual assault and obesity seems to be common knowledge. Women who have been sexually abused normally attempt to make themselves unattractive as a protective mechanism. I think it would be interesting to look at obesity as a symptom of sexual assault rather than to see how it has impacted their decision to commit suicide.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/sltb.12148/abstract
-Chelsea Cullen