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


METHODS
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.


METHODS
One rural and one urban site in South Africa.


METHODS
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.


METHODS
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.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings support the need for holistic rape services.
Christofides
N J
NJ
Gender and Health Research Unit, Medical Research Council, Private Bag x385 Pretoria 0001, South Africa, and School of Public Health, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 0001, South Africa. nicola.chris@mrc.ac.za
Muirhead
D
D
Jewkes
R K
RK
Penn-Kekana
L
L
Conco
D N
DN
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards; D003376:Counseling; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010808:Physical Examination / Q000523:psychology / Q000592:standards; D011902:Rape / Q000523:psychology*; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013019:South Africa; D013997:Time Factors; D014195:Travel; D019037:Urban Health Services / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014932:Women's Health Services / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data