Intimate Partner Violence and Adverse Health Consequences

TLDR

Intimate partner violence affects roughly one in four women and one in thirteen men, causing physical, sexual, and emotional harm that leads to a wide range of adverse health outcomes and represents a significant public health burden that primary care can help mitigate. The study seeks to integrate IPV education into medical and health‑care curricula and train future physicians and other providers about its prevalence and far‑reaching health implications. The authors propose embedding IPV content into medical training programs and providing targeted instruction to clinicians on recognizing and addressing IPV‑related health risks.

Abstract

Nearly 1 in 4 women and 1 in 13 men experience intimate partner violence (IPV) at some time in their life. Victims of IPV suffer significant negative health consequences because of the physical, sexual, and emotional abuse they have experienced. Elevated risks have been observed for a wide range of adverse health outcomes. Research has substantially improved our understanding of the physiology that underlies the association between violence victimization and an array of adverse health outcomes. Given the high prevalence of IPV and the associated medical consequences and costs of IPV, it is critical to address this public health problem. IPV prevention and intervention can substantially decrease the public health burden of IPV and greatly improve the health of patients being seen in the medical system. Primary care and family physicians are in an ideal position to diagnose victims of IPV and provide the victims and their families the appropriate care that is needed. However, to accomplish this goal, there remains an urgent need to integrate information on IPV into medical and health care curricula, and to train future physicians and other health care providers about the pervasiveness of IPV and the far-reaching implications for patient health.