THE PREVALENCE OF SEXUAL ASSAULT IN A GENITOURINARY MEDICINE CLINIC -SERVICE IMPLICATIONS

Objectives-To determine the prevalence of sexual assault amongst patie nts attending a department of genitourinary medicine and to investigat e the circumstances of the assault. Setting and subjects-The Departmen t of Genitourinary Medicine (GUM), St. Mary's Hospital, London. All pa tients attending the walk-in GUM Clinic over a fixed time period were invited to take part in the study. Methods-Patients were asked to comp lete an anonymous questionnaire designed by the investigators. Results -351 (209 women, 142 male) usable questionnaires were returned of 370 distributed. Seventy five persons (21.4%) reported sexual assault: 59 (28.2%) women and 16 (11.3%) men. The incident occurred more than thre e months before presentation in the majority of persons studied (93%). Twenty one per cent reported the assault to the police, and 34% atten ded for medical screening. For those who did attend for medical screen ing, 61% informed their doctor of the assault, The main reason for non -reporting to police and medical staff was ''a wish to forget''. Couns elling was sought by 24% after the sexual assault. Conclusions-A past history of sexual assault is common amongst GUM clinic attenders, more often disclosed amongst women. Reporting both to police and medical s ervices is low. Clinicians need to be sensitive to the fact that a sig nificant proportion of patients attending GUM services may have been s exually assaulted either in the present or the past and the impact tha t this may have on health care usage. GUM clinics maybe ideally placed to provide medical and psychological support to these individuals.