Höfundar:
Svava Dogg Jónsdóttir, Edda Bjork Thordardottir, Unnur Anna Valdimarsdóttir, Thorhildur Halldorsdottir, Sigurbjorg Anna Gudnadottir, Johanna Jakobsdottir, Harpa Runarsdottir, Gunnar Tomasson, Thor Aspelund, Arna Hauksdottir
Background: Sexual harassment and violence in work or academic environments are pressing global issues that have gained increased attention in recent years following the #MeToo movement. Exposure can have adverse health impacts and harm the workplace, with significant costs for society, but studies on the topic are lacking.
Methods: Data were derived from the Stress-And-Gene-Analysis cohort, a nationally representative study of 18–69-year-old Icelandic women, who completed questions on demographics, exposure to sexual harassment or violence in a current or previous workplace or academic environment, or both current and previous, as well as standardized measures to assess current health outcomes. We used Poisson regression to study variation in harassment across health outcomes.
Results: Results from 12,606 women (mean age 43.2 years) showed that those ever-exposed were more likely to have current symptoms of depression (prevalence ratio (PR) 1·48 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1·37–1·60]), general anxiety (PR 1·46 [95% CI 1·36–1·58]), social phobia (PR 1·52 [95% CI 1·37–1·69]), severe sleep problems (PR 1·42 [95% CI 1·31–1·53]), high physical symptom severity (PR 1·59 [95% CI 1·47–1·71]), self-harm (PR 1·32 [95% CI 1·10–1·60]), suicidal ideation (PR 1·61 [95% CI 1·47–1·77]), and suicidal attempts (PR 1·90 [95% CI 1·60–2·26]), than non-exposed women.
Conclusions: This study finds several positive associations between workplace sexual harassment or violence and a wide range of self-reported health outcomes. Future efforts should include the identification of intervention targets in the work or academic environment to mitigate these important adverse health outcomes.
