부산대학교 도서관

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the trend of hospital reported sexual assault and abuse instances in the North Texas region and counties. Study also aimed to geographically locate the counties and zip codes with high incidences of sexual assault and abuse to identify the disparities associated with higher incidences. Methods: For this study, researchers collected the hospital reported cases for sexual assault and abuse from DFWHC Foundation's regional database for 2010-2012. Sexual assault and abuse Data with ICD-9 diagnostic codes namely 995.53, 995.83, V71.5, and E960.1 were included in this study. Arc G1S was used to map the sexual assault and abuse data from region to county and zip code level. Results: Total 2,720 cases were reported to hospitals in North Texas during 2012. Dallas County had highest number of hospital reported cases (1,378) in North Texas region. In Dallas County, greater proportion of the victims was uninsured (2011 and 2012 data), non-Hispanic/Latino, White females' aged 10-29 years. GIS mapping indicated that zip codes 75243, 75217, 75216 had highest number of incidences in Dallas County. Results identified age, gender, socio-economic (based on payer group), race and ethnicity related characteristics associated with sexual assault and abuse in selected areas. Conclusion: This study has major significance in the realm of social and public health. With the identification of the contributing disparities, prevention, advocacy and educational efforts can be more efficiently targeted at zip code level. This study indicates the need of data sharing between different stakeholders to facilitate coordinated efforts for prevention, treatment and advocacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]