Susan K. Grove

Symptoms of female survivors of child sexual abuse.

Women who suffered sexual abuse as children often experience a variety of physical and psychosocial symptoms as adults. Identifying this pattern of symptoms might assist health professionals in recognizing and treating nonreporting survivors of child sexual abuse. In this study, the Adult Survivors of Incest (ASI) Questionnaire (Brown & Garrison, 1990) was used to determine the symptoms and contributing factors for 22 adult survivors of child sexual abuse. Six physical symptoms were experienced by 50% of the subjects, and over 75% of the subjects experienced 11 psychosocial symptoms. The number of physical symptoms correlated significantly with other victimizations (r = .59) and number of psychosocial symptoms (r = .56). The findings suggest that the ASI Questionnaire was effective in identifying patterns of symptoms and contributing factors of adult survivors of child abuse. Additional study is needed to determine the usefulness of this questionnaire in identifying nonreporting survivors in clinical situations.

The effect of a coronary artery risk evaluation program on serum lipid values and cardiovascular risk levels

In this study, serum lipid and cardiovascular risk levels of 195 military men and women were measured immediately before and 6 months after participation in a coronary artery risk evaluation (C.A.R.E.) program. Mean total cholesterol levels decreased from 257 mg/dl to 223 mg/dl (t(194) = -16.76, p = 0.00), low-density lipoprotein levels decreased from 170 mg/dl to 141 mg/dl (t(194) = -15.22, p = 0.00), and high-density lipoprotein levels increased from 45 mg/dl to 48 mg/dl (t(194) = 3.27, p = 0.01). Cardiovascular risk categories (based on serum lipid levels) were lowered from high to moderate risk in 54 subjects, high to low risk in 19 subjects, and moderate to low risk in 31 subjects (chi 2 = 98.28, p = 0.00). This study demonstrates that health education programs such as the C.A.R.E. Program can have a significant impact on serum lipid levels and cardiovascular risk levels and can potentially improve the health of high-risk populations.