Sexual harassment and its relationship with depressive symptoms: A nationwide study of Korean EMS providers

Abstract

Background Emergency medical service (EMS) providers may face sexual harassment (SH) from citizens. No studies have assessed SH prevalence and its association with depressive symptoms among EMS providers in South Korea. Methods We conducted a nationwide cross‐sectional survey of 1346 EMS providers in South Korea. SH experience was assessed by asking, “During the past 12 months, have you ever experienced sexual harassment on duty by civil citizens?” Depressive symptoms during the preceding week were assessed using the Centers for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Modified Poisson regression was applied to examine association between SH and depressive symptoms. Results Among EMS providers, 28.1% of females and 5.6% of males reported sexual harassment. In the gender‐stratified analysis, EMS providers those who experienced SH were more likely to have depressive symptoms among females (PR: 2.97, 95% CI: 1.99, 4.44) and males (PR: 2.01, 95% CI: 1.41, 2.86). Conclusions Female EMS providers were about five times more likely to experience SH than males.

Systematic Review of Policies and Interventions to Prevent Sexual Harassment in the Workplace in Order to Prevent Depression

“…For the first review, two-thirds of the articles included came from HICs (16/24) [ 8 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ], followed by articles from LMICs (7/24, 3 from upper-middle-income [ 29 , 30 , 31 ] and 3 from lower-middle-income countries [ 32 , 33 , 34 ]), and only one article from a low-income country [ 35 ]. Lastly, one article used data from different countries, mostly HICs [ 36 ].…”

“…Lastly, one article used data from different countries, mostly HICs [ 36 ]. Regarding the year of publication, two-thirds of the articles were published in the 2010s (16/24) [ 8 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 28 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 34 , 36 ], three articles in the 2000s [ 25 , 29 , 35 ] and five articles in the 2020s [ 20 , 21 , 26 , 27 , 33 ]. Regarding the methodology, most of the studies were cross-sectional (18/24) [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 25 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 ], while the rest were cohort studies (6/24) [ 8 , 19 , 23 , 24 , 26 , 27 ].…”

Iranian Nurses’ Experiences with Sexual Harassment in Workplace: a Qualitative Study

“…In a Malaysian study of public-sector managers, 43% of men and 47% of women said they had been sexually harassed in some way (Marican, 2000 ). Sexual harassment was reported by 5.6% of men and 28.1% of women in Korean emergency medical personnel (Yoo et al, 2019 ). Sexual harassment was prevalent in 1.8–34% of American students (Fedina et al, 2018 ) and 16.7% of Norwegian students (Sivertsen et al, 2019 ).…”

Sexual Violence as a Key Predictor of Depressive Symptoms in Women: Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families

“…Specifically, when a negative event occurs, negative perceptions of the event accumulate and cause depressive symptoms. Among the many factors that contribute to the onset of depressive symptoms, exposure to sexual violence has been the focus of increasing attention (Honda et al, 2018;Kucharska, 2017;Yoo et al, 2019). For example, in the United States, exposure to sexual violence has been identified as a predictor of depressive symptoms in college (Chang et al, 2015) and among middle-aged women (Thurston et al, 2019).…”

“…For example, in the United States, exposure to sexual violence has been identified as a predictor of depressive symptoms in college (Chang et al, 2015) and among middle-aged women (Thurston et al, 2019). Globally, sexual violence has been reported to aggravate or increase the risk of depressive symptoms in women in Europe (Domenech Del Rio & Sirvent Garcia Del Valle, 2017;Kucharska, 2017), Australia (Tarzia et al, 2018), Peru (Barrios et al, 2015), and Korea (Yoo et al, 2019).…”