Male Partner Violence Hurts Women Physically And Mentally For Extended Period Of Time
April 4, 2008
Violence towards a woman from an intimate male partner is oftenrecognized to cause injury, but other common outcomes can includegynecological, and gastrointestinal disorders, as well as mentaldisorders including suicidal tendencies. These observations werediscussed in an Article released on April 4, 2008 in TheLancet.
Previous studies of the health effects of partner violence have beenprimarily based in clinics, rather than in large populations, and havelargely centered in North American and Europe. This small sample sizeand single population, combined with a difficulty in defining andmeasuring violence, has made comparisons in this area difficult tomake.
To learn more about the effects of intimate partner violence on women’shealth, a WHO multi-country study was performed between 2000 and 2003.To do this, WHO and partners from all parts of the globe, led by Dr.Claudia Garcia-Moreno, interviewed almost 25,000 women, aged 15-49years, in multiple countries including: Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia,Japan, Namibia, Peru, Samoa, Serbia and Montenegro, Thailand, and theUnited Republic of Tanzania.
The women were asked about any experiences of physical or sexuallyviolent acts by an intimate male partner, past or present, and aboutthe resulting symptoms they experienced, both physically and mentally.Women who had experienced physical or sexual partner violence showedgenerally poorer health than those who had not. Additionally, within amonth of being interviewed, many had specific symptoms such asdifficulty walking, trouble performing daily activities, pain, memoryloss, dizziness, and vaginal discharge. Additionally, women who hadexperienced such violence at least once in their lives reportedincreased emotional distress and suicidal thoughts or attempts, incomparison to women who had never been abused in this way. There was nocorrelation found between these factors and age, education, or maritalstatus.
A notable association was found between this self-reported poor healthin the time leading up to the interview and partner violence occurringat any time in the life of the subject. This suggests that, long afterthe actual violence has ended, the health effects can remain.
The authors were unable to establish a causal relationship because ofthe nature of the study. That is, it was not clear if the violencecaused poor health, or if women with poor health were more likely tohave violent partners. However, previous studies suggest that thesehealth problems are the result of abuse rather than a precursor.
In conclusion, the authors call for more attention to be given to thisimportant health issue. “In addition to being a breach of human rights,the high prevalence of partner violence and its associations with poorhealth - including implied costs in terms of health expenditures andhuman suffering - highlight the urgent need to address partner violencein national and global health-sector policies and programmes.”
Riyadh K Lafta, of the Mustansiriya Medical School, Baghdad, Iraq,contributed a Comment in the same issue, in which she analyzed more ofthe challenges faced by those who want to understand the true impact ofsuch domestic violence. “Accurate and comparable data on violenceagainst women are needed to strengthen advocacy efforts, help policymakers understand the problem, and guide the design of preventiveinterventions. Unfortunately, data-collection efforts that measure thescope and magnitude of the situation of violence against women arehampered by several factors. These include the influence of social andcultural norms in determining what constitutes violence, changes inreported rates of abuse according to the definition of violence used,the way questions are asked, the type of target population, and thesetting of the interview. Under-reporting of violence is a commonproblem for several reasons: minor injuries might pass without beingreported; violence is viewed as normal in certain communities; victimsare too frightened of their partners to report the incident; sexualabuse and violence are rarely discussed in certain cultures; and verbalassault, an important type of gender violence, is often overlooked orunder-researched. Future studies with a longitudinal cohort designshould go further to measure the mortality and life expectancy amongwomen who are victims of intimate-partner violence.”
Intimate partner violence and women’s physical and mentalhealth in the WHO multi-country study on women’s health and domesticviolence: an observational study
Mary Ellsberg, Henrica A F M Jansen, Lori Heise, Charlotte H Watts,Claudia Garci?a-Moreno, on behalf of the WHO Multi-country Study onWomen’s Health and Domestic Violence against Women Study Team*
Lancet 2008; 371: 1165-72
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Intimate-partner violence and women’s health
Riyadh K Lafta
Lancet 2008; 371: 1140-42
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Written by Anna Sophia McKenney
Copyright: Medical News Today
