B4099 - Is sexual violence in early adulthood among women associated with subsequent alcohol misuse later in life - 11/07/2022
Within the United Kingdom the prevalence of women’s experience of sexual violence particularly in early adulthood is evidenced to be at an increasing rate (Borumandnia et al., 2020) and much higher than society displays. Reports to clinics of the consequential physical and psychological effects have led to an interest from researchers to further investigate the prominent consequential risks following an experience of sexual violence. Interest has risen around incidents of alcohol misuse over other substances following a woman’s experience of sexual violence, as a result of the accessibility and social acceptance accompanying the substance (Burnam et al., 1988). Additionally, consequent severe health risks have been linked to the misuse of alcohol which may lead to an endurance of health concerns for the individual as well as the subsequent pressure implemented onto the health services.
However, despite the prevalence of sexual violence and consequent health risks associated with alcohol misuse, a lack of consistent evidence dominates existing literature. A myriad of reasons as to why a lack of consistent evidence prevails, however consistent reference to the small sample sizes due to the diverse population, methodological complications and inadequate measures are the most prominent throughout existing literature. Furthermore, due to the ambiguous nature of both sexual violence and alcohol misuse, difficulties can arise when attempting to define the two concepts, particularly when portraying this to patients, which can influence accuracy of the data gathered. Nonetheless, a consistent effort is made to reduce these confounding factors to produce research that can reap both clinical and educational benefits from the knowledge gathered. This project aims to account for the issues that previous research has struggled to address, through focusing on the gap in the literature through the use of the large ALSPAC data set to investigate whether an association exists between women’s early adulthood experience of sexual violence in early adult hood at aged 16 and their subsequent alcohol use at ages 24.