PLoS ONE
Volume 14, Issue 10, 2019

Prevalence, associated factors and health impact of intimate partner violence against women in different life stages (Article) (Open Access)

Sanz-Barbero B.* , Barón N. , Vives-Cases C.
  • a Department of Epidemiology and Biostatics. National School of Public Health, Institute of Health Carlos III, Madrid, Spain, Consortium for Biomedical Research in Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain, Joint Research Institute National Distance Education University, Institute of Health Carlos III (IMIENS), Madrid, Spain
  • b Department of Epidemiology and Biostatics. National School of Public Health, Institute of Health Carlos III, Madrid, Spain, Public Health Research Group, Department of Community Nursing, Preventive Medicine and Public Health and History of Science, Alicante University, Alicante, Spain
  • c Consortium for Biomedical Research in Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain, Public Health Research Group, Department of Community Nursing, Preventive Medicine and Public Health and History of Science, Alicante University, Alicante, Spain

Abstract

Objectives The effect of age on intimate partner violence (IPV) against women has received little attention. The objective of this study is to analyze the prevalence, risk factors and health impact of current IPV in different life stages. Methods We analyzed a sub-sample of 8,935 ever-partnered women aged 16 years and older from the Spanish Macrosurvey on Gender Violence of 2014. Main outcomes: current physical/ sexual IPV and current psychological-only IPV. The impact of IPV on health was analyzed using the variables self-perceived health, mental health and activity limitations. Risk factors were assessed using the prevalence ratio (PR) from Poisson regression models with robust variance. Analyses were stratified by age (young people, adults, and elderly people). Results Abuse in childhood increases the likelihood of IPV in any life stage. A higher education level decreases the probability of physical/sexual IPV across all ages. Unemployment increases the probability of IPV in adult women (physical/sexual-IPV, PR:1.7; psychological-IPV, PR:1.3). Being an immigrant increases the likelihood of physical/sexual IPV in adult women (PRwomen:1.91). Women exposed to current physical/sexual IPV have a greater likelihood of reporting poor self-perceived health (PRyoungpeople:2.59; PRadults:1.68; PRelderly:1.28), poor mental health (PRyoungpeople:3.10; PRadults:2.61; PRedlerly:2.17) and activity limitations (PRyoungpeople:2.44; PRadults:1.98). For psychological IPV only, there is an increase in the probability of poor self-perceived health (PRadults:1.37; PRelderly:1.19), poor mental health (PRyoungpeople:2.24; PRadults:2.16; PRelderly:1.69), and activity limitations (PRadults:1.30; PRelderly:1.18). Conclusions We found both common factors and differential factors when looking at IPV by age group. This shows the need to link gender violence prevention with the social circumstances of the population across different life stages. © 2019 Sanz-Barbero et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Author Keywords

[No Keywords available]

Index Keywords

education unemployment immigrant mental health human risk assessment controlled study probability Aged childhood Adolescent male female risk factor prevalence Article major clinical study partner violence gender human experiment adult Child

Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85073063343&doi=10.1371%2fjournal.pone.0221049&partnerID=40&md5=e7e4bab7f55fda961956d3c7c20e4d71

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0221049
ISSN: 19326203
Original Language: English