Articles examine aspects of sexual assault, harassment

Bottom Line: Two articles are being published to coincide with the North American Menopause Society annual meeting. An original investigation by Rebecca C. Thurston, Ph.D., of the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and coauthors looked at the association of sexual harassment and sexual assault with blood pressure, mood, anxiety and sleep among midlife women. In the study of 304 women between the ages of 40 and 60, 19 percent reported a history of workplace sexual harassment and 22 percent reported a history of sexual assault. Sexual harassment was associated with higher odds of hypertension and clinically significant sleep problems, and in the case of sexual assault, a greater likelihood of clinically significant elevations in depression, anxiety and poor sleep. In addition, a research letter by Sabine Oertelt-Prigione, M.D., M.Sc.P.H., Ph.D., of Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands, surveyed physicians at a tertiary referral center in Berlin, Germany, about sexual harassment and the results suggest sexual harassment frequently affects female and male physicians during their careers. There were 737 participants included in the analysis and, among them, 70 percent reported some form of misconduct while working, and the most common form self-reported as harassment was verbal harassment.

###

To Learn More: The full studies are available on the For The Media website.

(doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.4886 and doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.4859)

Editor's Note: Please see the articles for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

# # #