Citation

Rosellini AJ, Street AE, Ursano RJ, Chiu WT, Heeringa SG, Monahan J, Naifeh JA, Petukhova MV, Reis BY, Sampson NA, Bliese PD, Stein MB, Zaslavsky AM, Kessler RC. Am. J. Public Health 2017; 107(5): 732-739.

Affiliation

Anthony J. Rosellini, Wai Tat Chiu, Maria V. Petukhova, Nancy A. Sampson, Alan M. Zaslavsky, and Ronald C. Kessler are with the Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. Amy E. Street is with the National Center for PTSD, VA Boston Healthcare System, and Department of Psychiatry, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston. Robert J. Ursano and James A. Naifeh are with the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress, Department of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University School of Medicine, Bethesda, MD. Steven G. Heeringa is with the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. John Monahan is with the School of Law, University of Virginia, Charlottesville. Ben Y. Reis is with the Predictive Medicine Group, Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Paul D. Bliese is with the Darla Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, Columbia. Murray B. Stein is with the Departments of Psychiatry and Family Medicine and Public Health, University of California San Diego, and VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, American Public Health Association)

DOI

10.2105/AJPH.2017.303693

PMID

28323466

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To examine associations of administratively recorded sexual assault victimization during military service with subsequent mental health and negative career outcomes among US Army women controlling for nonrandom victimization exposure.

METHODS: We used data from the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers to apply propensity score methods to match all 4238 female Regular Army soldiers with administratively recorded sexual assault victimization during 2004 to 2009 to 5 controls per case with similar composite victimization risk. We examined associations of this victimization measure with administratively recorded mental health treatment, suicide attempt, and Army career outcomes over the subsequent 12 months by using survival analysis for dichotomous outcomes and conditional generalized linear models for continuous outcomes.

RESULTS: Women with administratively recorded sexual assault had significantly elevated odds ratios (ORs) of subsequent mental health treatment (any, OR = 2.5; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.4, 2.6; specialty, OR = 3.1; 95% CI = 2.9, 3.3; inpatient, OR = 2.8; 95% CI = 2.5, 3.1), posttraumatic stress disorder treatment (any, OR = 6.3; 95% CI = 5.7, 6.9; specialty, OR = 7.7; 95% CI = 6.8, 8.6; inpatient, OR = 6.8; 95% CI = 5.4, 8.6), suicide attempt (OR = 3.0; 95% CI = 2.5, 3.6), demotion (OR = 2.1; 95% CI = 1.9, 2.3), and attrition (OR = 1.2; 95% CI = 1.1, 1.2).

CONCLUSIONS: Sexual assault victimization is associated with considerable suffering and likely decreased force readiness. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print March 21, 2017: e1-e8. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2017.303693).

Language: en