One in five Women will Experience Intimate Partner Violence, Preventative Counseling may Help those at Risk

Statistics show that approximately one in five central Pennsylvania women have experienced intimate partner violence when asked by a health care provided regarding abusive relationships, according to Penn State medicine and public health science researchers. And even more shocking-approximately only one in nine women has received preventative counseling about violence and safety.

"Our research shows that we (as a health care community) haven't been doing a good job of identifying and counseling about intimate partner violence," said Jennifer S. McCall-Hosenfeld, primary care physician and assistant professor of medicine and public health sciences, Penn State College of Medicine.

Of those women who participated in the Central Pennsylvania Women's Health Study, she said, "Only 20 percent who had been exposed to intimate partner violence received safety and violence counseling in the two years following the abuse, and only 11 percent of all women had discussed violence and safety at home with a health care provider."

McCall-Hosenfeld and colleagues Cynthia H. Chuang, associate professor of medicine and public health sciences, and Carol S. Weisman, Distinguished Professor of Public Health Sciences and Obstetrics and Gynecology, both at Penn State College of Medicine, examined preventive health care services for women of reproductive age and how exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) was associated with relevant preventive health care services. The study focused on women who had reported experiencing IPV -- specifically physical violence, sexual violence and threats of either by a current or former partner or spouse.

More than a third of the women in the U.S. have experienced IPV, according to the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Researchers illustrate the fact that abuse can have serious immediate, long-term and even permanent health consequences, as a result of inadequate preventative health care services.

Between 2004 and 2007 McCall-Hosenfeld and colleagues surveyed 1,420 women of reproductive age who were participating in the Central Pennsylvania Women's Health Study. The women responded to questions regarding intimate partner violence, healthcare access, socio-economic status and whether they had received preventive health care services. The researchers report their results in an article published in the March/April issue of Women's Health Issues.

"Our data suggest that many women who have been exposed to IPV are not being appropriately identified in health care settings and are not getting many of the health care services they need," said McCall-Hosenfeld.

In January 2013 the United States Preventive Services Task Force released a guideline recommending that clinicians screen all women of reproductive age for IPV and help provide intervention services when necessary.

"We have a long way to go for health care to be in compliance with this guideline," said McCall-Hosenfeld. "We'll need to have a culture shift in many settings so that health care providers are comfortable with asking patients about IPV, patients are comfortable with being asked and the health care systems work to ensure that all patients get the services they need."