‘Unacceptably high’: Nearly 65% of medical interns experienced sexual harassment

Key takeaways:

• Sexual harassment was reported by 77.2% of female interns and 50.9% of male interns.
• The data could inform interventions and reduce unacceptable rates of sexual harassment, researchers said.

Among medical interns in the United States who were surveyed, 64.7% reported experiencing sexual harassment, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open.

Previous data indicate that sexual harassment is experienced by 20% to 25% of female resident physicians in the U.S., but “most studies of sexual harassment are single center or single specialty, limiting the understanding of variation across institutions and specialties,” Elizabeth M. Viglianti, MD, MPH, MSc, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan, and colleagues wrote.

So, the researchers looked for possible variations by analyzing 2016 to 2017 Sexual Experiences Questionnaire data from the Intern Health Study. The final analysis included responses from 2,027 interns (mean age, 27 years) across 28 institutions. Among the interns, 61.5% were white and 52.5% were women.

Overall, sexual harassment was experienced by 77.2% of female interns and 50.9% of male interns.

After adjusting for respondent characteristics, Viglianti and colleagues reported finding significant variation between the prevalence of sexual harassment and institutions (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] = 0.01; 95% CI, 0.003-0.05), “with an absolute difference of 12.2% between institutions for low and high prevalence.” They added that the median OR was 1.2 (95% CI, 1.09-1.45), meaning that for two interns with the same characteristics, the one at an institution with a higher prevalence of sexual harassment would be 20% likelier to experience harassment.

There was also significant variation of sexual harassment in the nine training specialties (ICC = 0.01; 95% CI, 0.003-0.05) examined, with a median OR of 1.22 (95% CI, 1.1-1.52).

The researchers wrote that, although sexual harassment was prevalent overall across programs, “institutional and specialty training variations in interns’ sexual harassment experiences exist, thereby providing additional evidence that residency programs and institutions play an important role in combating this widespread problem.”

They noted there were several limitations within the study. For example, there was a lack of generalizability outside of the U.S., in addition to possible responder bias.

Viglianti and colleagues concluded that further research is needed to understand the cultural or policy differences that may impact sexual harassment within specialties and programs.

Still, “[these] data could inform interventions and facilitate the sharing of best practices, ultimately reducing the unacceptably high frequency of sexual harassment experienced by resident physicians,” they wrote.