Citation

Muldoon K, Smith G, Talarico R, Heimerl M, McLean C, Sampsel K, Manuel D. Am. J. Public Health 2019; 109(9): 1280-1287.

Affiliation

Katherine Muldoon, Glenys Smith, Robert Talarico, and Douglas Manuel are with ICES and Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Kari Sampsel and Cheynne McLean are with Faculty of Medicine, The Ottawa Hospital and University of Ottawa, Ottawa. Melissa Heimerl is with Ottawa Victim Services and the Victimology Program at Algonquin College, Ottawa.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, American Public Health Association)

DOI

10.2105/AJPH.2019.305179

PMID

31318596

Abstract

Objectives. To estimate the population-level frequencies and standardized rates of sexual assault cases in the province of Ontario, Canada. Methods. We conducted a 15-year retrospective analysis (2002-2016) of sexual assault cases by linking 5 provincial administrative health databases. We defined sexual assault by an algorithm of 23 International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, and physician billing codes. We calculated age- and sex-stratified standardized rates per 100 000 census population, and we used age- and sex-stratified Poisson regressions to determine annual rate ratios. Results. Between 2002 and 2016, there were 52 780 incident cases of sexual assault in Ontario at a rate of 27.38 per 100 000 population. The highest rates were found among females aged 15 to 19 years (187 per 100 000) and 20 to 24 years (127 per 100 000). Among males, the highest rates were observed among children aged 0 to 4 years (41 per 100 000) and 5 to 9 years (29 per 10 000). Among males and females, the annual rate ratio increased among those aged 15 years and older and decreased among those aged 14 years and younger. Conclusions. Sexual assault was documented across all age groups and sexes, from children to elders, with high standardized rates among adolescents and children. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print July 18, 2019: e1-e8. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2019.305179).

Language: en