Enhanced Assess, Acknowledge, Act (EAAA) — Canada's RCT-Tested Sexual Assault Resistance Programme for First-Year University Women

The Enhanced Assess, Acknowledge, Act (EAAA) Sexual Assault Resistance programme was developed by Charlene Senn and colleagues at the University of Windsor. It consists of four 3-hour units in which participants receive information and practise skills to assess risk from acquaintances, overcome emotional barriers to acknowledging danger, and use effective verbal and physical self-defence.
In a randomised controlled trial on three Canadian university campuses, 451 first-year women were assigned to the programme and 442 to a control session offering brochures on sexual assault, the common university practice. 91% of the resistance group attended at least three of the four units.
Over one year of follow-up, the risk of completed rape was 5.2% in the resistance group versus 9.8% in the control group (relative risk reduction 46.3%, 95% CI 6.8 to 69.1, P=0.02). Attempted rape was 3.4% versus 9.3% (P<0.001). A secondary analysis reported effects lasting at least two years.
Caveats: the trial covered first-year women on three Canadian campuses; the programme places responsibility for resistance on potential victims, so it is best used alongside, not instead of, perpetrator-focused and institutional prevention; the confidence interval for the primary result is wide; and no cost-effectiveness data were reported.

Read the full analysis: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa1411131