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Obesity in girls and penetrative sexual abuse in childhood
Author(s) -
PinhasHamiel Orit,
ModanMoses Dalit,
HermanRaz Meirav,
Reichman Brian
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
acta pædiatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2008.01044.x
Subject(s) - medicine , sexual abuse , obesity , body mass index , overweight , child abuse , physical abuse , pediatrics , child sexual abuse , psychiatry , poison control , injury prevention , environmental health
Aim: To assess the relationship between childhood obesity and penetrative sexual abuse in girls. Methods: All obese girls referred to a hospital based pediatric endocrine unit were interviewed by a social worker or psychologist. Questions aimed to elicit any history of physical, emotional and sexual abuse are included. Overweight was defined as BM >95th percentile for age and gender. Body mass index (BMI) Z score (BMIZ) was calculated as measured BMI minus mean BMI for age and gender divided by standard deviation. Penetrative abuse was defined if a history was elicited of forced intercourse with any form of oral, vaginal or anal penetration. Results: A history of penetrative abuse was elicited in 5 out of 145 (3.5%) obese girls, their mean ± SD age was 11.9 ± 3.1 years. Abused girls were significantly more obese than the remainder of the patients (BMIZ 4.76 ± 1.34 vs. 3.39 ± 1.28 p = 0.02). Forty‐two of all girls had BMI Z scores ≥4, and of these four (9.5%) had been abused. All girls had changes in normal daily behaviour including seductive behaviour, seclusion, self‐mutilation and new onset day enuresis. Conclusion: In the evaluation of girls with marked obesity, particularly if associated with behavioural changes and failure to respond to therapy, the possible occurrence of penetrative sexual abuse should be considered.