TITLE:
Urological Complaints and Sexual Abuse: A Case Control Study Identifying Multiple Urological Complaints in Relation to Sexual Abuse History
AUTHORS:
Jack Beck, Melianthe Nicolai, Hein Putter, Rob Pelger, Henk Elzevier
KEYWORDS:
Sexual Abuse; Abuse
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Sexual Medicine,
Vol.3 No.2,
April
30,
2013
ABSTRACT:
Introduction: The relationship between sexual abuse and urinary tract symptoms has been described for urgency, frequency and nocturia. Aims: To investigate if other urological complaints in females, like urinary tract infections, incontinence, voiding complaints and lower abdominal pain are also correlated with a history of sexual abuse (SA) and to measure the prevalence of sexual abuse in our urological patient population, using a clinical case control study. Methods: 1383 female patients of 18-year-old or older visiting our outpatient urological university clinic were asked to fill out a questionnaire evaluating referral indications and urological complaints. The questionnaire consisted out of two parts. The first part was designed characteristics and medical history. The second part included referral indications, the urological complaints and a possible history of SA. The sample was divided into two groups: those with and those without a history of SA. The Outcome Measures: 1) The comparison of the frequency of voiding complaints, urinary tract infections (UTI’s), lower abdominal pain, hematuria and incontinence in respondents with and without SA; 2) The prevalence of SA in female patients presenting at our university urological outpatient clinic; 3) The number of urological symptoms presented at the time of referral by respondents with a history of SA compared the non-abused. Results: 436/1383 (32%) patients were willing to participate. 304 (70%) questionnaires were properly filled in. The reported prevalence of sexual abuse was 17% (51/304). More than half of the females with a history SA presented with voiding complaints (32/51 p = 0.18), incontinence (31/51 p = 0.10) and urinary tract infections (27/51 p = 0.22). However, comparing the data of respondents without SA we found no significant differences with regards specific complaints. Patients with SA report more symptoms than those without (Armitage’s trend test 0.14 (p = 0.004) for 4 complaints or more). Conclusions: No significant correlation between SA and voiding complaints, incontinence nor lower abdominal pain was found. The prevalence rate of SA in female patients visiting our university urological outpatient clinic was 17%. These abused females mentioned more synchronous complaints as reason for referral at their first visit than the non-abused.