Characteristics and health consequences of adolescent sexual assault at Police General Hospital, Thailand.

OBJECTIVE

To describe the characteristic and epidemiology ofadolescent sexual assaults and to compare health consequences between adolescent and adult victims.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

Retrospective review of sexual assault victims records of those who were examined in sexual assault program in Police General Hospital between January 1 and December 31, 2012.

RESULTS

There were 335 cases ofadolescents sexual assault victims. Most of them were in junior high school (62.4%). Most adolescent sexual assaults were committed by boyfriends (50.3%) and acquaintance/friends (14.7%). The most common place for the assaults was the offender's residence (52.9%). Delayed medical evaluation was common. Only 49.4% attended medical evaluation within 72 hours. Adolescent victims had a higher pregnancy rate than adult victims (9.0% vs. 3.6%), but lower rate of non-genital injuries (14.6% vs. 36.3%). Only labia minora injury of adolescent was significantly lower than adult (9.3% vs. 17.5%) among genital injuries. Hepatitis B infection rate of adolescent was lower than adult (1.2% vs. 4.5%), whereas other types of infection were not different.

CONCLUSION

Thai adolescents had set the unique assault characteristic different from adult victims. Adolescent victims were mainly assaulted by boyfriends at assailant's residence, with higher pregnancy rate than other international reports. Promote education to adolescences is highly recommended to decrease cases of rape and rape-related pregnancy in female adolescent.