Intimate partner violence, health behaviours, and chronic physical illness among South African women
Intimate partner violence, health behaviours, and chronic physical illness among South African women
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DOI：
10.7196/samj.4274
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发表时间：
2010-09-01
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Seedat, Soraya
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Gass, Jesse D;Stein, Dan J;Seedat, Soraya
目标.亲密伴侣暴力行为与妇女的不良身体健康结果和危害健康行为之间的关联已经确定，大多数科学研究是在美国和其他发达国家进行的。在包括南非在内的发展中国家进行的研究很少，南非是世界上亲密伴侣暴力发生率最高的国家之一。因此，我们试图研究身体亲密伴侣暴力和身体健康的结果和行为之间的关联南非妇女。使用来自具有全国代表性的南非压力和健康研究的数据，我们评估了1 229名已婚和同居妇女样本中亲密伴侣暴力、健康风险行为、寻求健康行为和慢性身体疾病的暴露情况。报告的暴力发生率为31%。这与几种危害健康的行为（吸烟、饮酒、使用非医用镇静剂、止痛剂和大麻）和寻求健康的行为（最近看过医生或治疗师）有关。亲密伴侣暴力与慢性身体疾病没有显著相关性，尽管头痛、心脏病发作和高血压的发生率接近显著性。伴侣对妇女的暴力行为是南非的一个重大公共卫生问题，与危害健康的行为和更多地使用医疗服务有关。公共卫生方案应纳入干预措施，以减轻暴力行为对受害者的影响，并减少负面行为后果的风险。需要进一步调查暴力接触与健康行为之间的途径，以便为此类方案的设计提供信息。
Objectives. An association between intimate partner violence and adverse physical health outcomes and health-risk behaviours among women has been established, most scientific research having been conducted in the USA and other developed countries. There have been few studies in developing countries, including South Africa, which has one of the highest rates of intimate partner violence in the world. We therefore sought to study the association between physical intimate partner violence and physical health outcomes and behaviours among South African women.Methods. Using data from the cross-sectional, nationally representative South African Stress and Health Study, we assessed exposure to intimate partner violence, health-risk behaviours, health-seeking behaviours and chronic physical illness among a sample of 1 229 married and cohabiting women.Results. The prevalence of reported violence was 31%. This correlated with several health-risk behaviours (smoking, alcohol consumption, and use of non-medical sedatives, analgesics and cannabis) and health-seeking behaviours (recent visits to a medical doctor or healer). Intimate partner violence was not significantly associated with chronic physical illness, although rates of headache, heart attack and high blood pressure reached near-significance.Conclusions. Partner violence against women is a significant public health problem in South Africa, associated with health-risk behaviours and increased use of medical services. Public health programmes should incorporate interventions to mitigate the impact of violence on victims and reduce the risk of negative behavioural outcomes. Further investigation of the pathways between violence exposure and health behaviours is needed to inform the design of such programming.