Peer-reviewed article
Self-reported sexual assault and dental service use among adolescents: The moderating role of dental pain.
Daneris ÂP, Sartori LRM, Rocha MDC, Demarco FF, Correa MB et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how sexual assault affects dental service use among Brazilian adolescents aged 13-17 years. Using data from a national school health survey of over 124,000 students, researchers found that adolescents who reported experiencing sexual abuse were less likely to have visited a dentist in the previous year compared to non-abused peers, with a stronger effect among girls. Dental pain was associated with slightly increased dental visits but did not change the relationship between sexual assault and service use. The findings highlight that trauma exposure may reduce engagement with healthcare services during adolescence.
Key points
- 6.2% of adolescents reported lifetime sexual assault; 66.7% reported dental visits in the previous year
- Adolescents with history of sexual assault had lower dental service use (prevalence ratio 0.96), particularly girls (PR 0.94)
- The association between sexual assault and reduced dental service use was modest in magnitude
- Dental pain showed modest increase in dental service utilization across all groups
- No evidence that dental pain modified the relationship between sexual assault and dental service use
Limitations
As a cross-sectional study, this work cannot establish causation or determine the direction of effects. The study relies on self-reported data for both sexual assault and dental service use, which may be subject to underreporting or recall bias, particularly for sensitive topics like sexual violence.
Abstract
This study investigated the association between self-reported sexual assault and dental service utilization among Brazilian adolescents (13-17-yr), considering sex differences and the moderating role of dental pain. Cross-sectional analyses using data from the 2019 Brazilian National School Health Survey were performed with stata 18.5, applying survey weights. The outcome was dental service use in the previous year, and the exposure was lifetime self-reported sexual assault. A total of 124,106 adolescents were included; 50.4% were female and 66.3% aged 13-15-yr. Overall, 66.7% reported dental visits in the previous year, 18.6% reported dental pain, and 6.2% reported sexual abuse. Adolescents with a history of sexual assault showed lower prevalence of dental service use compared with their non-abused peers (prevalence ratio [PR] = 0.96; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.92-1.00), particularly among girls (PR = 0.94; 95% CI: 0.89-0.98). Dental pain was associated with a modest increase in dental service utilization across all groups, with no evidence of effect modification. These findings suggest that sexual abuse is linked to reduced engagement with dental services during adolescence, especially among females, although the magnitude of this association is modest. The results emphasize the importance of trauma-informed and intersectoral strategies to improve access to oral healthcare for vulnerable populations.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Not applicable - this is an observational study examining the association between sexual assault exposure and dental service utilization
- Population
- Brazilian adolescents aged 13-17 years (n=124,106; 50.4% female, 66.3% aged 13-15)
Key finding
6.2% of adolescents reported lifetime sexual assault
ÂP et al. · Europe PMC · 1 Jun 2026