title: Intimate partner violence and disabilities among women attending family practice clinics.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To estimate the frequency and type of disabilities preventing work among those experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) compared with those never experiencing IPV.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used a large cross-sectional survey of women, ages 18-65, attending family practice clinics from 1997 through 1998. Participation included a 5-10-minute in-clinic survey assessing IPV experience and a longer telephone survey assessing health status and chronic disabilities that prevented work outside the home or housework.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 1,152 eligible women surveyed, 54% experienced some type of IPV, and 24% were currently in a violent relationship. Women who had ever experienced IPV were more than twice as likely to report a disability (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 2.2, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.6, 3.0). The most commonly reported disabilities were those associated with heart or circulatory disease (4.9%), followed by back problems (3.5%), chronic pain (3.4%), arthritis (3.0%), nerve system damage (2.4%), asthma or another respiratory problem including emphysema (1.7%), and either depression (1.6%) or another mental illness (1.0%). Women ever experiencing IPV were more likely to report a disability due to generalized chronic pain (aOR = 2.5, 95% CI 1.5, 4.3) and mental illness (aOR = 4.5, 95% CI 1.5, 13.1). IPV-related injuries were associated in a dose-dependent manner with having any disability and with disability from chronic pain, asthma and other respiratory diseases, mental illness, and chronic diseases.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Primary care-based efforts to screen for IPV and effectively intervene to reduce the impact of IPV on women's lives must be a public health priority to reduce the shortterm and long-term health effects, including disabilities.
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology, University of Texas Health Science Center, School of Public Health, Houston, Texas 77225, USA. Ann.L.Coker@UTH.TMC.EDU
authors.forename: Ann L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Coker
authors.forename: Paige H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Mary K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Fadden
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002908:Chronic Disease; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005194:Family Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013179:Spouse Abuse / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D016387:Women's Health