The Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine, 2020 · DOI: 10.1080/10790268.2019.1621730 · Published: January 1, 2020
This study investigates the prevalence and impact of sexual abuse among individuals with spinal cord damage (SCD) compared to able-bodied individuals. The research involved a survey of 136 people with SCD and 220 able-bodied controls in Australia between August 2013 and June 2014. The findings indicate that sexual abuse is relatively common in people with SCD, with 19% reporting such abuse, and that females with SCD were more likely to report abuse.
Rehabilitation clinicians should be aware of the potential for people with SCD who have been abused to have this abuse influence aspects of their adjustment and acceptance of routine processes of rehabilitation care.
Rehabilitation service providers need to ensure that there are appropriate systems in place to facilitate the reporting by people with SCD of sexual abuse.
Future studies should include a formal definition of sexual abuse, report the nature of the sexual abuse and include a more thorough exploration of the impact of the sexual abuse.