Mental and physical health of sexually abused boys and girls : a matched case-control study with a 10 year cohort follow-up

Childhood sexual abuse is associated with many physical and mental health problems. However, it is not clear how the physical and mental health problems of children and adolescents in Quebec who experienced sexual abuse compare to those of the general population. The objective of the current study is to determine if, in Quebec, sexually abused youth consult about or are hospitalized for physical and mental health problems more often than those in the general population over the 10-year period following a first report. Administrative databases were used to document the medical diagnoses of 882 children and adolescents (75 % girls) who had at least one substantiated report of sexual abuse between January 1, 2001, and December 31, 2010, at the Centre jeunesse de Quebec - Institut universitaire. Their diagnoses are compared to those of 882 youth from the general population paired according to gender and age. The results reveal that childhood sexual abuse entails a five-fold increased risk of outpatient medical consultation and hospitalization, for both mental and physical health problems, up to 10 years after the substantiated report of sexual abuse.