The prevalence of military sexual assault among female veterans' administration outpatients

Considerable publicity has focused on sexual violence among military women. The authors report the prevalence of military sexual violence and make com parisons among women veterans who report they experienced sexual violence w hile in the military and those who did not. Data are from the Veterans' Adm inistration (VA) Womens' Health Project, which was designed to assess the h ealth status of women veterans receiving VA ambulatory care. The nationally representative sample (N = 3,632) consists of female veterans who had at l east one ambulatory visit at a VAfacility between July I, 1994, and June 30 , 1995. More than half (55%) of the women report they were sexually harasse d while in the military, and almost one quarter (23%) report they were sexu ally assaulted. There are differences in sociodemographic characteristics, military experiences, and current health perceptions of women who reported sexual harassment or sexual assault while in the military as compared to th ose who did not. The prevalence of military sexual harassment and sexual as sault is high and screening for sexual assault is important in all women pa tients given the differences between groups.