Caring for the sexually assaulted child: Follow-up matters

In 2024, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported that 1 in 8 women (370 million) experienced sexual assault before the age of 18, and 8% of these are from East and Southeast Asia.1 In Singapore, 38.6% of 11,868 sexual assault cases from 2018 to 2022 involved children aged under 16...

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Main Authors: Rie Aoyama, Olivia Leow, Si Min Chan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Academy of Medicine Singapore 2025-07-01
Series:Annals, Academy of Medicine, Singapore
Online Access:https://annals.edu.sg/caring-for-the-sexually-assaulted-child-follow-up-matters/
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author Rie Aoyama
Olivia Leow
Si Min Chan
author_facet Rie Aoyama
Olivia Leow
Si Min Chan
author_sort Rie Aoyama
collection DOAJ
description In 2024, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported that 1 in 8 women (370 million) experienced sexual assault before the age of 18, and 8% of these are from East and Southeast Asia.1 In Singapore, 38.6% of 11,868 sexual assault cases from 2018 to 2022 involved children aged under 16 years.2 These children are at risk of pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and post-assault trauma in the short term, and face wide-ranging long-term psychosocial and health consequences, including psychiatric disorders and infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).3 A systematic review of children and adolescents exposed to sexual abuse found that STI detection varied from less than 1 percent to 61 percent in different settings and by type of STI.4 In a Singapore review of 790 patients aged 0 to 16 years who presented to a paediatric emergency department (ED) for sexual abuse/assault from 2016 to 2020, 6.2% had an STI, with the majority having chlamydia followed by gonorrhoea.5
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publishDate 2025-07-01
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series Annals, Academy of Medicine, Singapore
spelling doaj-art-c190aa4706e24cf6803fe5dd0c5b5b1a2025-08-20T03:39:15ZengAcademy of Medicine SingaporeAnnals, Academy of Medicine, Singapore2972-40662025-07-0110.47102/annals-acadmedsg.2025190Caring for the sexually assaulted child: Follow-up mattersRie AoyamaOlivia LeowSi Min Chan In 2024, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported that 1 in 8 women (370 million) experienced sexual assault before the age of 18, and 8% of these are from East and Southeast Asia.1 In Singapore, 38.6% of 11,868 sexual assault cases from 2018 to 2022 involved children aged under 16 years.2 These children are at risk of pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and post-assault trauma in the short term, and face wide-ranging long-term psychosocial and health consequences, including psychiatric disorders and infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).3 A systematic review of children and adolescents exposed to sexual abuse found that STI detection varied from less than 1 percent to 61 percent in different settings and by type of STI.4 In a Singapore review of 790 patients aged 0 to 16 years who presented to a paediatric emergency department (ED) for sexual abuse/assault from 2016 to 2020, 6.2% had an STI, with the majority having chlamydia followed by gonorrhoea.5https://annals.edu.sg/caring-for-the-sexually-assaulted-child-follow-up-matters/
spellingShingle Rie Aoyama
Olivia Leow
Si Min Chan
Caring for the sexually assaulted child: Follow-up matters
Annals, Academy of Medicine, Singapore
title Caring for the sexually assaulted child: Follow-up matters
title_full Caring for the sexually assaulted child: Follow-up matters
title_fullStr Caring for the sexually assaulted child: Follow-up matters
title_full_unstemmed Caring for the sexually assaulted child: Follow-up matters
title_short Caring for the sexually assaulted child: Follow-up matters
title_sort caring for the sexually assaulted child follow up matters
url https://annals.edu.sg/caring-for-the-sexually-assaulted-child-follow-up-matters/
work_keys_str_mv AT rieaoyama caringforthesexuallyassaultedchildfollowupmatters
AT olivialeow caringforthesexuallyassaultedchildfollowupmatters
AT siminchan caringforthesexuallyassaultedchildfollowupmatters