Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Despite the important role of healthcare services in trauma recovery, many survivors of violence do not seek help. This study aims to examine rates of healthcare utilisation, including differences for physical violence versus rape, gender and physical injury (vs no injury) and obstacles to seeking care within 6 months following incidents of physical violence and rape. DESIGN AND SETTING: The participants were randomly chosen from the National Population Registry in Norway and invited to participate in a telephone survey on violence exposure and health between June 2021 and June 2022 (N=4299, 49% women). PARTICIPANTS: The sample included 1768 violence-exposed individuals. Of the women (n=749), 82.1% had experienced physical violence and 40.3% had experienced forcible rape. Of the men, most had experienced physical violence (98.6%) and a small percentage had experienced rape (3.5%). OUTCOME MEASURES: Logistic regression models were used to investigate whether healthcare seeking differed by gender, type of violence (rape vs physical violence) and severity (physical injury). Barriers to accessing healthcare were also investigated using descriptive statistics and content analysis. RESULTS: Healthcare seeking rates were low after rape (16.9%) and physical violence (24.2%), with somewhat higher rates among individuals experiencing both types of violence (39.9%). There were no statistically significant differences in the odds of healthcare utilisation between the three types of violence exposures when we controlled for gender, physical injury, violence characteristics and sociodemographic factors. Men were more likely than women to have sought healthcare (adjusted OR (aOR): 1.37, 95% CI: 1.02 to 1.85, p=0.042). Physical injury was strongly associated with greater healthcare utilisation (aOR: 6.39, 95% CI: 4.85 to 8.41, p<0.001). Barriers to healthcare seeking included perceptions of violence severity and context, as well as shame and fear of consequences. CONCLUSIONS: Few victims seek healthcare shortly after experiencing rape or physical violence. Quantitative and qualitative findings indicate that many seek healthcare exclusively for severe physical injury. These results emphasise the need to improve health services' outreach to victims of violence, who are at heightened risk of mental health issues and chronic illnesses.