Elsevier

Women's Health Issues

Volume 11, Issue 2, March–April 2001, Pages 116-125
Women's Health Issues

Partner violence: implications for health and community settings

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1049-3867(00)00093-1Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective:To assist in the design and implementation of strategies to address partner violence, the objective of this study was to evaluate differences in mental health, health behaviors, and use of health care and specific community services between women who do or do not report experiences of partner violence as an adult.

Methods: During interviews with 392 women enrolled in a Medicaid managed care organization, measures of mental health status, health behaviors, use of health care and community services, and experiences of partner violence were collected. Using bivariate statistical analyses, characteristics between women reporting or not reporting partner violence were compared. Chi-square tests were used to assess significant differences between the groups. The relationships between outcomes of interest and violence were estimated with logistic regression models adjusting for significant demographic and health characteristics.

Results: Overall, 28% of women reported experiences of partner violence. Women reporting partner violence had twice the adjusted odds of depression and three times the adjusted odds of negative self-esteem compared with women not reporting experiences of partner violence. Women reporting partner violence, compared with those who did not, indicated higher use of specific types of health and community services such as mental health services [odds ratio (OR) 2.9; confidence interval (CI) 1.5–5.6] and individual counseling (OR 3.6; CI 2.2–6.1).

Conclusions: A communitywide effort that establishes linkages between health care settings and community services may be important in addressing the needs of women who are experiencing partner violence.

Section snippets

Study population and data collection

Women between the ages of 13 and 45, who resided in Memphis, Tennessee, were enrolled in a Medicaid managed care health plan (TennCare) as of March 1996, and who had a telephone number or address were eligible to participate in this study (n = 1,136). This study population was chosen for a larger study examining barriers to prenatal care and the population selection and tracking efforts have been described in detail elsewhere.18, 19 Excluding women who chose not to participate (n = 204) and

Results

For all study participants, most respondents were African-American, never married, more than high school educated, employed, poor and reported good health status (Table 1). Of the 392 women included in this analysis, 28% (n = 110) reported experiences of partner violence. There was an association between reporting partner violence and women being of older age, having a history of a previous marriage, having more than a high school education, or reporting poor health status. Race, employment,

Comment

Approximately 28% of the women in this study reported experiencing partner violence. This percentage is consistent with other literature1, 26 and illustrates the pervasiveness of partner violence. In this study population, women reported a higher occurrence of partner violence if they were older, previously married, or had more education. This is not consistent with other literature that generally supports a higher risk of partner violence for women who are of younger age and with less

Acknowledgements

This research was supported in part by a National Research Service Award Post-Doctoral and Pre-Doctoral Traineeship from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality sponsored by the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Grant No. T32 HS00032. The authors also acknowledge Carol Porter for her assistance in data analysis.

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