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| Intimate partner violence found widespread |
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Intimate partner violence (IPV), a.k.a. domestic violence, is common and damages women's physical and mental health significantly, according to a Group Health study reported in two papers in the June issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
In a random sample of more than 3,400 women members of Group Health Cooperative, nearly half - 44 percent - reported having experienced IPV during their adult lifetime.
"This is an epidemic," said Robert S. Thompson, MD, senior investigator, Group Health Center for Health Studies, lead author of one paper. "But it flies under the radar, because of the stigma and shame associated with it - as well as the fear that many health care providers have of opening what some call a "Pandora's Box" of difficult problems that they are unsure how to address."
This study is the first to find that the more recent a woman's IPV, and the longer it has gone on, the worse her physical and mental health and social network are likely to be.
"IPV harms women's physical and mental health even more than do other common conditions, such as back pain and even several forms of cancer," said Amy E. Bonomi, PhD, MPH, senior research associate, Group Health Center for Health Studies, lead author of the other paper. Compared to women with no IPV, women with recent physical IPV were four times as likely to report symptoms of severe depression, nearly three times as likely to report poor or fair health and more than one additional symptom. They also reported lower social functioning by several measures.
Previous estimates ranged from a quarter to a half of women experiencing IPV during their adult lifetimes, depending on how researchers defined IPV and whom they sampled, with young, low-income women reporting more IPV. Interestingly, this study (reporting a prevalence of nearly one half) involves health plan enrollees who tend to be older and have higher incomes and more education than average, making it clear that IPV is an equal-opportunity problem.
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