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  3. Women's experiences of and preferences for services after rape in South Africa: interview study
Research

Women's experiences of and preferences for services after rape in South Africa: interview study

BMJ 2006; 332 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.38664.482060.55 (Published 26 January 2006) Cite this as: BMJ 2006;332:209
  1. N J Christofides, specialist scientist (nicola.chris{at}mrc.ac.za)1,
  2. D Muirhead, health economist2,
  3. R K Jewkes, director1,
  4. L Penn-Kekana, researcher3,
  5. D N Conco, programme manager4
  1. 1 Gender and Health Research Unit, Medical Research Council, Private Bag ×385 Pretoria 0001, South Africa, and School of Public Health, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 0001, South Africa
  2. 2 Aurum Health Research, PO Box 61587 Marshalltown, 2107, South Africa
  3. 3 Centre for Health Policy, School of Public Health, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 0001, South Africa
  4. 4 Women's Health Project, School of Public Health, University of Witwatersrand
  1. Correspondence to: N J Christofides
  • Accepted 4 October 2005

Abstract

Objectives To describe aspects of delivery of health services after rape, including trade-offs, that would most influence choice of service, and to compare views of patients who had used such services with views of members of the community who may be future users or may have experienced barriers to service use.

Design Discrete choice analysis of stated preferences with interviews. Attributes included travel time to the service, availability of HIV prophylaxis, number of returns to the hospital, medical examination, and counselling skills and attitude of the provider.

Setting One rural and one urban site in South Africa.

Participants 319 women: 155 who had been raped and four carers recruited through health facilities and 160 comparable women recruited from the community. Of these, 156 were from an urban site and 163 from a rural site.

Main outcome measures Strength of preferences over a range of attributes through the estimation of a benefit function through random effects probit modelling.

Results Factors such as the availability of prophylactic treatment for HIV infection and having a sensitive healthcare provider who could provide counselling are more important in women's decisions to seek care after rape than the travel time necessary to access those services.

Conclusion Our findings support the need for holistic rape services.

Footnotes

  • Contributors NJC participated in conception and design of the study, analysis and interpretation of data, and writing the article. DM participated in conception and design of the study and in writing the article; she conducted the discrete choice analysis. RKJ participated in conception and design of the study, interpretation of data, and critical revision of the article. LP-K and DNC participated in conception and design of the study, collection and interpretation of data. NJC is guarantor.

  • Funding Unicef, Danish Government, and the South African Department of Health.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Ethical approval The University of Witwatersrand's health sciences committee for research on human subjects approved the study.

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