The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare service access for the victims of sexual assault

South African Family Practice

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare service access for the victims of sexual assault
 
Creator Kaswa, Ramprakash
 
Subject Family Medicine; Rural Medicine; Primary Health Care COVID-19; pandemic; violence against women; sexual assault; lockdown
Description Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic disrupted the provision or exacerbated the existing gap of access to essential healthcare services. An unanticipated effect on access to healthcare services emerged with the introduction of COVID-19 lockdown regulations. Violence against women is prevalent with varying degrees of severity in all spheres of society.Methods: This study aims to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the access to healthcare services for the victims of sexual assault in the Mthatha region of South Africa. This is a records review of victims of sexual assault survivors who visited and were treated at the Sinawe TCC at Mthatha Regional Hospital. The data on sexual assault cases at Sinawe TCC were compared with a time-matched control group from 2014 to 2020.Results: There were 5747 sexual assault cases reported at Sinawe TCC between 01 January 2014 and 31 December 2020. There was a major drop in reported cases at Sinawe TCC during the 2020 year, with only about half (451) of the annual average cases being reported.Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic has an impact on access to healthcare services for the victims of sexual assault survivors in the Mthatha region of South Africa.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2021-10-27
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Peer-reviewed Article Cross-sectional; Review
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/safp.v63i1.5367
 
Source South African Family Practice; Vol 63, No 1 (2021): Part 4; 4 pages 2078-6204 2078-6190
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://safpj.co.za/index.php/safpj/article/view/5367/7028 https://safpj.co.za/index.php/safpj/article/view/5367/7029 https://safpj.co.za/index.php/safpj/article/view/5367/7031 https://safpj.co.za/index.php/safpj/article/view/5367/7032
 
Coverage Africa; South Africa 2018-2020 N/A
Rights Copyright (c) 2021 Ramprakash Kaswa https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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