Violence, Mental Health, and Physical Symptoms in an Academic Internal Medicine Practice

Authors

Christina Nicolaidis, Portland State UniversityFollow
MaryAnn Curry, Oregon Health & Science UniversityFollow
Bentson H. McFarland, Oregon Health & Science University
Martha Gerrity, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Portland

Sponsor

This work was funded by a grant from the Medical Research Foundation of Oregon (Pl: Nicolaidis).

Published In

Journal of General Internal Medicine

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2004

Subjects

Intimate Partner Violence (ITV) -- Case studies

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To assess how physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence (IPV), child abuse, and community violence relate to long-term mental and physical problems; to examine the overlap between different forms of violence and the impact of experiencing multiple forms of violence.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey.

SETTING: Three general internal medicine practices affiliated with an academic medical center.

PARTICIPANTS: English-speaking women aged 25 to 60.

MEASUREMENTS: Telephone or in-person interview and chart review.

RESULTS: One hundred seventy-four women completed interviews. A majority of participants experienced more than one form of violence. In separate multivariate analyses, each form of violence was associated with depressive symptoms or with at least 6 chronic physical symptoms, after adjustment for demographic factors and substance abuse. The degree of association with health outcomes was similar for each form of violence (odds ratio [OR], 2.4 to 3.9; PPP

CONCLUSIONS: Multiple types of victimizations may contribute to patients’ current mental health and physical problems. Research or clinical protocols that only focus on one form of violence may underestimate the complexity of women’s experiences and needs.

Description

© 2004 by the authors. Licensee: Springer. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

*At the time of publication, C. Nicolaidis was affiliated with OHSU.

Locate the Document

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.30382.x

DOI

10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.30382.x

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/32761

Citation Details

Nicolaidis, C., Curry, M., McFarland, B., & Gerrity, M. (2004). Violence, mental health, and physical symptoms in an academic internal medicine practice. Journal of general internal medicine, 19(8), 819-827.