Psychosocial effects of physical and verbal abuse in postmenopausal women.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to examine the psychological effects of physical and verbal abuse in a cohort of older women.


METHODS
This observational cohort study was conducted at 40 clinical sites nationwide that are part of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Observational Study. We surveyed 93,676 women aged 50 to 79 years using the mental health subscales and the combined mental component summary (MCS) score of the RAND Medical Outcomes Study 36-item instrument.


RESULTS
At baseline, women reporting exposure to physical abuse only, verbal abuse only, or both physical and verbal abuse had a greater number of depressive symptoms (1.6,1.6, and 3 more symptoms, respectively) and lower MCS scores (4.6, 5.4, and 8.1 lower scores, respectively) than women not reporting abuse. Compared with women who had no exposure to abuse, women had a greater increase in the number of depressive symptoms when they reported a 3-year incident exposure to physical abuse only (0.2; 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.21 to 0.60), verbal abuse only (0.18; 95% CI, 0.11 to 0.24), or both physical and verbal abuse (0.15; 95% CI, -0.05 to 0.36); and they had a decrease in MCS scores when they reported a 3-year incident exposure to physical abuse only (-1.12; 95% CI, -2.45 to 0.12), verbal abuse only (-0.55; 95% CI, -0.75 to -0.34), and both physical and verbal abuse (-0.44; 95% CI, -1.11 to -0.22) even after adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics.


CONCLUSIONS
Exposure to abuse in older, functionally independent women is associated with poorer mental health. The persistence of these findings suggests that clinicians need to consider abuse exposure in their older female patients who have depressive symptoms. Clinicians caring for older women should identify women at risk for physical and verbal abuse and intervene appropriately.
Mouton
Charles P
CP
Department of Community and Family Medicine, Howard University College of Medicine, 520 W Street NW, Washington, DC 20059, USA. cmouton@howard.edu
Rodabough
Rebecca J
RJ
Rovi
Susan L D
SL
Brzyski
Robert G
RG
Katerndahl
David A
DA
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003625:Data Collection; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D004552:Elder Abuse / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D017698:Postmenopause; D011594:Psychometrics; D012307:Risk Factors; D012944:Social Support; D013179:Spouse Abuse / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016387:Women's Health
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