Childhood sexual abuse: impact on a community's mental health status

Epidemiologists have used impact fractions (e.g., attributable fractions) to study the influence of various risk factors on the rates of physical diseases within the community. In this study, impact fractions are applied to a psychiatric epidemiologic problem in order to examine the impact of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) on the mental health status of a community. Analysis of the Los Angeles Epidemiologic Catchment Area (LAECA) data indicate that a history of CSA significantly increases an individual's odds of developing eight psychiatric disorders in adulthood. On the community level, however, it is estimated that 74% of the exposed psychiatric cases (i.e., those with a history of CSA), and 3.9% of all psychiatric cases within the population can be attributed to childhood sexual abuse. Intervention implications are discussed.