Association of Sexual Violence and Mental Health

Relationship between Sexual Violence and Mental Health

1 .Introduction

The aim of writing critique is to critique is to evaluate work of an individual for the sake of enhancing reader’s understanding. A critique is subjective analysis because it states the opinions of the one who has written the text. Critique is done on the study named as “Sexual violence associated with poor mental health in women attending Australian general practices” by Laura Tarzi et al., The aim of this study was to address the gaps in the knowledge base. The research question for this study can be what is the association between SV and poor mental health?

2 .Study design

The design of this study is descriptive cross-sectional study whereby a short self-reported survey was conducted in Australian general practice clinics. The use of self-report survey in research is comparatively simpler method to gather data from the participants in less time and at low cost along with collecting data in several ways to suit the researcher’s needs. In addition to it, the in self-reported survey participants can be too uncomfortable to expose private details and various partialities can also affect the results. The descriptive cross-sectional study is descriptive and used to efficiently evaluate the effect of SV on mental health of women. A short self-reported survey was appropriate choice of study to answer the research question because self-reported data is precise when participants understand the questions and when there is a solid sense of concealment and little fear of retaliation. To know the association of SV on mental health of women, the participant filled the survey on their prior experience and it the results were clear.

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3 .Reported results

For the purpose of regulating the experience of women of SV, a questioner related to ‘Sexual Violence Victimisation’ and ‘Control of Reproductive and Sexual Health’ were given for the survey. A self-reported question from the questioner of Patient Health Questionnaire was used to measure the present depressive symptoms, which is an authenticated tool for showing and identifying depression in clinical research and practice.  These two measures are used to access the level of SV and MH. Both of them are valid and investigation has revealed that at least one incident of adult sexual violence was experienced by half of the samples. Women stated public harassment, unwanted examining and being forced into sex. Women who are seemed to experience adult SV high level of anxiety (Hegarty, Gunn, Chondros, Small). Women who faced adult SV are prone to feel down, to feel down, disheartened, depressed and miserable than women who have not been through adult SV. Though, this association was missing after controlling for childhood sexual abuse. 

4 .Error  

4.1 Selection

Women over 18 years of age who were sitting in waiting rooms of participating Australian general practice clinics were selected by general practitioners for the study by delivering those surveys on iPad. Another option was given to them to continue it after they had finished with the doctor or to email it in private to complete at home. The survey was also accessible in paper formed on demand by the participants. 360 eligible women were approached, out of which 337 approached to introduce study, 313 met the inclusion criteria but 24 did not do so. 80 informed participants declined to participate on the other hand, 233 consented to participate in the survey. 230 participants completed the survey but 3 participants out of 233 were not able to complete the survey. In actual 74% people completed the survey. One study group was taken of the women over 18 years of age so the participation did not differ. The survey design that is self-reporting survey of cross-sectional study recall bias as they theoretically reduced the influence size of the association among SV and poor mental health. In addition to it, the sample size was small which resulted in lack of power to notice the anticipated differences on the anxiety and depression results. However, there was no selection biasness that was not identified by the author.

 

 

4.2 Measurement

The outcomes and exposures were clearly defined in the study. For the sake of regulating the experience of women of SV, 21 questions concerning ‘Sexual Violence Victimisation’ and ‘Control of Reproductive and Sexual Health’ were taken from the NISVS survey.  A single self-reported question taken was taken from the questioner of Patient Health Questionnaire was used to measure current depressive symptoms, which is a validated tool for screening and diagnosing depression in clinical research and practice. These two measures are used to access the level of SV and MH. The participants were aware of the assessors and they knew that the effect of sexual violence in their mental health is being accessed. Interview was not conducted; there was a survey which was self-administered with the minimum involvement of researcher. The participants who filled the survey were same, they filled the questioners for both outcomes and exposure variables, and this was the biasness that was not identified by the author. Along with this, it was cross sectional study and the data was collected at the same time which made it difficult to tract behavioral changes.

5 .Confounding

The sources of confounding that are addressed by the author are childhood abuse and non-sexual trauma. These confounding sources are not spoken. There is association of childhood sexual abuse and feeling down, depressed or hopeless. The variables of SV both during childhood are unclear whether their experiences as children are associated more to their present mental health issues. A child that experience sexual abuse goes through a lot of mental issues and it remain throughout their life (Humphreys, Thiara). Similarly, women who contributed may have also been through non-sexual trauma in their lives. There would be impact of childhood abuse and non-sexual trauma in their lives on the results of study but they were not captured in the survey.  Along with these confounding domestic violence is also a variable that was not considered in the study but it would also be beneficial for the study because it also affects the mental health (Tarzia, Thuraisingam, Novy, Valpied, Quake, Hegarty). The confidence interval has become so large and effect sized are reduced which are probably the results of these confounding such that the variables of childhood abuse, non-sexual trauma and domestic violence are being ignored, which resulted in changes in the outcomes.