When public-health researchers look at people—for studies, at least; not sure what they're like at dinner parties—they think in terms of "exposures." Exposures are factors in the environment that have the potential to affect people's health. Exposures can include everything from air pollution in people's neighborhoods, to how much radiation folks encounter at home and work, to the racism people face (which has been shown to hurt their health). One "exposure" that's gotten a lot of attention lately, but which hasn't been very much studied as a public-health risk, is sexual harassment and assault.
"There's been such a dearth of research in this area," says Nancy Krieger, an epidemiologist at Harvard University who studies health inequalities. That lack is especially notable because so many Americans—women especially—face sexual harassment. In a new study of more than 300 healthy, middle-aged women in Pittsburgh, about one in five reported having been sexually harassed at work. About the same number said they had been sexually assaulted before. "That's not a trivial exposure," Krieger says.
The study didn't go into too much detail. Study volunteers were just asked to answer "yes" or "no" to whether they had experienced harassment or assault before. In a field where such measures are lacking, however, the study was an important start. "Given the high prevalence of sexual harassment and assault, addressing these prevalent and potent social exposures may be critical to promoting health and preventing disease in women," the study's authors, a team of psychiatrists and social scientists from the United States and Switzerland, wrote in their paper, published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
[For more on this story by FRANCIE DIEP, go to https://psmag.com/social-justi...studied-health-risks]
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