Japan's Children and Families Agency released results on Tuesday from what SCMP described as the first survey of its kind on sexual abuse in hospitals, and it found reports at 15% of the facilities that responded. [1]
The agency invited 5,000 institutions to take part and received 1,113 responses. [1] The survey found that many reported cases involved medical staff in psychiatry and psychosomatic departments, or within internal medicine departments. [1]
The findings also point to possible under-reporting. The article said children and severely disabled patients may not know how to voice complaints, and the true scale of abuse in hospitals may be higher than the survey suggests. [1]
Yoko Tsukamoto, a professor at the Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, questioned part of the data, saying, "The numbers for the younger age group looked questionable." [1]
The survey broke down reported abuse cases by age, with 66.7% in the 19-39 group and 3.3% in the 12-18 group. [1] The agency's release of the results on Tuesday is the latest concrete step in the effort to measure abuse in medical settings. [1]
