Assessment Instruments Used To Study Healthcare-Based Interventions for Women Who Have Experienced Sexual Violence ->

This review examined 29 assessment instruments that have been used in research on healthcare-based interventions for women who experienced sexual violence.  Fifteen (52%) of the 29 instruments focused on health (with most of these examining mental health or having a mental health component), 8 (28%) focused on service delivery, 1 (3%) focused on attitudes, 1 (3%) focused on behaviour, and 4 (13%) focused on multiple topics. 

It is understandable why many of the assessment tools that have been used in studies of healthcare based interventions for women who have experienced sexual violence were concerned with mental health issues given that sexual assault survivors often suffer mental trauma, in addition to physical trauma, during and after an assault and in the short- and longer-term.  It is noteworthy that most of these mental health assessment instruments have been carefully developed, and that they have well-documented psychometric characteristics, including estimates of reliability and validity. Unfortunately very few were developed specifically for victims/survivors of sexual violence. 

The next most common type of assessment instrument assessed healthcare services for sexual violence victims. Often these instruments were completed by clinicians or clinic directors, and they gathered a wide range of information concerning the clinic settings, as well as the policies and procedures related to the care of sexual assault survivors.  Most referred to immediate and short-term care post-assault, given that the locale of interest was a hospital or clinic where few longer-term services are offered to victims/survivors.  Only limited information about the psychometric characteristics of these instruments is available. 

It was somewhat surprising that few instruments focused on the assessment of attitudes or behaviors or assessed multiple domains.  In part, this may be due to the financial limitations faced by many researchers, the challenges of incorporating new measures into such work, and the desire to replicate and re-use instruments already proven to be strong measures of important dimensions of interventions for survivors of sexual violence.