Intimate partner violence and health-related quality of life in European men and women: Findings from the DOVE study

• AbstractPurposeLittle is known on the specific relation betweenbeing a perpetrator or both a victim and perpetrator ofintimate partner violence (IPV) and health-related qualityof life (HRQoL). We assessed the association betweenHRQoL and abuse, considering men and women as victims,perpetrators or reciprocally.MethodsParticipants were adult men and women(n=3,496), randomly selected from the general populationof six European cities. The Revised-Conflict-Tactics-Scalesand the Medical-Outcomes-Study 36-item Short-FormHealth Survey (SF-36) were used to measure IPV andHRQoL. The age-, education-, and city-adjusted meanscores[standard error] of the physical and of the mental SF-36 component summaries were used to compare victimsonly,perpetrators-only, and those involved in both (bidirectionalor reciprocal cases) with those not involved in pastyearand lifetime physical assault and/or sexual coercion.ResultsThe physical component summary was significantlylower in women involved in past-year bidirectionalphysical assault compared with non-abused women. Themental component summary in women not involved in IPVwas significantly higher than in those physically abused,regardless of type of involvement. Women victims-only ofpast-year sexual coercion and victims or involved in bidirectionalconcomitant physical and sexual IPV also presentedlower scores in the mental component summary thanwomen not involved in IPV. In men, significantly lowerscores in the mental component summary were found in thepast-year bidirectional physically assaulted group andamong those involved bidirectionally in both physical andsexual IPV compared with men not involved in IPV.

Subject headings

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Europe

Health-related quality of life

Intimate partner violence

Multicenter study

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)