Assessment of sexual trauma, health, and functioning histories in routine clinical care
Principal Investigator
A history of traumatic experiences may make people more likely to engage in health-risking sexual behaviors and negatively affect their sexual functioning and satisfaction. Routine appointments with health care providers might be an opportunity to identify and address health concerns, however prior research suggests providers are not asking patients about comprehensive sexual health histories or sexual assault/abuse. Additionally, people of color and those with a history of trauma face unique challenges to accessing high quality sexual healthcare. This project aims to understand if and how sexual health histories are conducted in clinical practice and whether providers are adhering to guidance from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), as well as the relationship between patient characteristics and assessment, counseling, treatment, and referrals for sexual health. The research team will collect intake and other wellness forms from a variety of health clinics in and around the Providence, RI metropolitan area and develop a coding system to determine adherence to CDC and AAFP guidelines. Findings from this coding will inform interviews with 16 health care providers to learn how they take sexual health histories at their practice and how intake forms are used to assess health-risking sexual behaviors, sexual functioning and satisfaction, and trauma history. The long-term goal of this project is to share specific strategies for implementing sexual health histories into routine standard-of-care with a focus on those with trauma histories who may be most at-risk for negative outcomes.
