Sam Mireille, Barrocas Joana, Clemente-Teixeira Maria, Taveira-Gomes Tiago, Vidal-Alves Maria João, Magalhães Teresa
Department of Public Health and Forensic Sciences, and Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
USF Caravela, Local Healthcare Unit of Matosinhos, Lagoa Street, Senhora da Hora, Portugal.
PLoS One. 2025 Jul 16;20(7):e0326235. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0326235. eCollection 2025.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious public health problem due to its severe health outcomes and its association with significant morbidity and mortality. There are many prevalence studies about this topic but few on incidence. Therefore, an incident health characterization of alleged IPV victims may be relevant to understanding the situation of the person at the moment when the suspicion of violence was recorded. The global aim is to characterize the health conditions of women allegedly victims of IPV. Specifically, the study aims to characterize: (a) health risk behaviours; (b) traumatic injuries and intoxications; (c) mental health disorders; and (d) physical disorders. We conducted a retrospective cohort study based on secondary data analysis of electronic health records and health registry data of patients of the Local Health Unit of Matosinhos (Portugal) between 2001 and 2021. To analyse variables, we selected official codes and regular terms used by physicians to describe violence during any clinical encounter. A total of 16 966 alleged female victims of IPV were identified along with a matched population of 29 980 women. This study highlights the significant increase in incidence rates of various health conditions among those allegedly victimized compared to the matched population. It provides novel insights by comparing incidence rates with previous prevalence estimates, revealing higher incidence ratios across the majority of health conditions among allegedly female IPV victims. This suggests a potential loss of follow-up among these individuals, possibly due to treatment dropout or mortality, highlighting the urgent need for targeted interventions and enhanced healthcare support for IPV victims.
亲密伴侣暴力（IPV）是一个严重的公共卫生问题，因为它会导致严重的健康后果，并与高发病率和死亡率相关。关于这个主题有很多患病率研究，但发病率研究却很少。因此，对疑似亲密伴侣暴力受害者的发病健康特征进行描述，可能有助于了解在记录暴力怀疑时该人的状况。总体目标是描述疑似亲密伴侣暴力受害者的健康状况。具体而言，该研究旨在描述：（a）健康风险行为；（b）创伤性损伤和中毒；（c）心理健康障碍；以及（d）身体疾病。我们基于对2001年至2021年期间葡萄牙马托西纽什当地卫生单位患者的电子健康记录和健康登记数据进行二次数据分析，开展了一项回顾性队列研究。为了分析变量，我们选择了医生在任何临床会诊中用于描述暴力的官方代码和常用术语。共识别出16966名疑似亲密伴侣暴力的女性受害者以及29980名匹配的女性人群。这项研究强调，与匹配人群相比，那些疑似受害者中各种健康状况的发病率显著增加。通过将发病率与先前的患病率估计值进行比较，该研究提供了新的见解，揭示了疑似亲密伴侣暴力女性受害者在大多数健康状况下的发病率更高。这表明这些个体可能存在失访情况，可能是由于治疗中断或死亡，凸显了针对亲密伴侣暴力受害者进行有针对性干预和加强医疗保健支持工作的迫切需求。
