Sexual assault experience, depression, and heavy substance use among German adults: an exploratory mediation analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The experience of sexual assault may be associated with numerous adverse outcomes, including depressive disorders and heavy substance use. We aimed to examine the relationship between heavy substance use and depression in victims of sexual assault.

Methods

We used nationally representative data from the German Health and Sexuality Survey (GeSiD) with N = 4,955 women and men aged 18-75 years. We assessed (i) the potential effect of sexual assault experience on depression mediated through hazardous alcohol, heavy tobacco, and frequent cannabis use and (ii) sexual assault experience on heavy substance use mediated through depression using logistic regression analysis to estimate proportion mediated (PM).

Results

We found some evidence of mediation between sexu

SUBMITTER: Belau MH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11892163 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature