A study published in the American Journal of Public Health has found thousands of sexual assaults treated in Peel area hospitals, but the amount of sexual violence in this region could be much higher, according to the director of a local women’s shelter.

Using data collected from clinical categorizing and physician billing codes, the study concluded 4,170 sexual assault cases were documented at hospitals and clinics in Peel Region and surrounding area from 2002 to 2016.

The findings, complied by a group of Ottawa medical practitioners and published in the September issue of the Journal, brought together the data from hospital emergency departments and physician-billing codes.

Data collected in the Central West Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), which includes hospitals in Brampton and Caledon, indicated 1,951 sexual assaults and 2,219 sexual assaults treated in hospitals in the Mississauga-Halton LHIN area, which includes Mississauga, Halton Hills and Oakville.

"What the data represents are the most severe cases of sexual assault, that either need hospital-based care, are brought in by ambulance or have experienced a drug-related sexual assault," said the study's lead author, Katherine Muldoon.

The majority of the assault cases were against women, with 87 per cent in Mississauga-Halton and 88 per cent in the Brampton-Caledon area covered by the Central West LHIN.

Across all of Ontario, the study found 52,780 sexual assaults treated in hospitals and clinics between 2002 and 2016. The majority of women assaulted were between the ages of 15 and 19, while most assaults against males occurred before they were four-years-old.

Interim Place provides shelter and services for women and their children experiencing abuse in Peel Region. Executive director Sharon Floyd said that there are many more women experiencing sexual violence than disclosing at hospitals or to police in Peel Region.

"Many women still do not come forward because they don't believe they're going to be believed," Floyd said. "And also there's a very small percentage of women who experience justice after disclosing sexual violence that they've experienced."

Language may also be a barrier, Floyd said, as having to discuss a traumatic incident in a second language can be a deterrent to women coming forward.