Comparison of age at trauma across the four index events used in this analysis revealed that sexual assault typically occurred before the age of 18 years, whereas only a minority of each comparison event occurred before the age of 18 years. Specifically, 81.9% of sexual assaults occurred before the age of 18 years, in contrast with 27.0% of accidents, 31.7% of disasters, and 24.6% of unexpected deaths of someone close. The age disparity across events would artificially reduce the probability that persons whose index event was sexual assault had experienced MDD, GAD or AUD before the index event, relative to each of the comparison events.
