[The impact of gender inequality on intimate partner violence in Spain].
OBJECTIVE
To explore the geographical distribution of mortality due to intimate partner violence (IPV) and reports of IPV according to the gender development index (GDI) of Spanish provinces.


METHODS
We performed an ecological study, based on GDI by provinces, of deaths from IPV and official complaints of IPV made by women between 1997 and 2004. The sources were the "Report on Human Capital and Human Development in Spain", the "Home Affairs Statistics Yearbook", and the web page of the Federation of Separated and Divorced Women. Provinces were divided into 2 groups according to whether their GDI score was above or below the mean GDI score for Spain (0.895). Mortality rates by age and rates of official complaints of IPV were calculated for the two groups of provinces (high and low GDI). Relative risks and their confidence intervals were calculated to analyze the risk of dying from or reporting IPV in low GDI provinces compared with that in high GDI provinces.


RESULTS
The risk of death due to IPV was higher in women living in low GDI provinces than in those living in high GDI provinces (RR = 1.328; 95% CI, 1.253-1.406). Furthermore, the risk of reporting IPV was higher in low GDI provinces than in high GDI provinces (RR = 1.468; 95% CI, 1.462-1.474).


CONCLUSIONS
Despite the trend to develop IPV strategies focused on individual causes, our results suggest that to tackle this problem, strategies for promoting gender equity in Spain are required.
Vives-Cases
Carmen
C
Area de Medicina Preventiva y Salud Pública, Universidad de Alicante, Alicante, España. carmen.vives@ua.es
Alvarez-Dardet
Carlos
C
Carrasco-Portiño
Mercedes
M
Torrubiano-Domínguez
Jordi
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012306:Risk; D012307:Risk Factors; D012747:Sexual Partners; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D013179:Spouse Abuse / Q000401:mortality / Q000639:trends