Prevalence of Childhood Sexual Abuse Among Tunisian Psychiatric Outpatients and its Associated Factors

 In this study, we aim to estimate the prevalence of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) in psychiatric outpatients in Tunisia and to identify the associated factors.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 133 patients (80 men and 53 women; mean age: 45.02`11.8 years) referred to the psychiatry clinic of the University Hospital of Gabes in Southern Tunisia. Data was collected using the childhood trauma questionnaire - short form, and the suicide behaviors questionnaire-revised. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics including a correlation test were used for data analysis. The significance level was set at 0.05.

The overall prevalence of CSA was 9.8%. Participants with a history of CSA had a significantly younger age at the onset of psychiatric symptoms and longer duration of hospitalization. The results of multivariate analysis showed that CSA increased the risk of having psychiatric comorbidities by 5.9 (AOR=5.9, 95% CI, 1.3%, 28.8%) and the risk of suicidal ideation by 5.1 (AOR=5.1, 95% CI, 1.03%, 26.9%).

The history of CSA has a negative impact on psychiatric patients in adulthood. This association is multifactorial, and there is a need for further longitudinal studies in this regard.