Intimate Partner Violence and Physical Health Consequences

Abstract

THERE IS mounting evidence that domestic violence (DV) has long-term negative health consequences for survivors, even after the abuse has ended. This can translate into lower health status, lower quality of life, and higher utilization of health services.^1-4 There is no agreement on the constellation of signs, symptoms, and illnesses that a primary care physician should recognize as associated with a current or prior history of DV.^5-9 Agreement on such a compilation could alert practitioners about when to probe for DV in the patient's history. In addition, this constellation could serve as a basis for a standard targeted physical examination to be used with all female patients who have been abused. As one step toward informing the development of such a standard, this study elicits and describes information about signs, symptoms, and illnesses from subjects whose history of physical abuse is known. It also investigates differences in the effects of physical vs sexual intimate partner abuse. Last, it uses a sample of predominantly middle-class working women to investigate whether the health effects of DV in this group differ from those reported by other researchers from samples that consist of primarily lower-income women.