Paper
Sunday, November 4, 2007
267
Women's Health Disparities and Intimate Partner Violence
Phyllis Sharps, RN, PhD1, Jacquelyn C. Campbell, RN, PhD, FAAN1, and Linda Bullock, RN, PhD, FAAN2. (1) School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA, (2) Sinclair School of Nursing, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO, USA
| Learning Objective #1: describe the changes in patterns and prevalence of IPV before vs during pregnancy |
| Learning Objective #2: describe the variance explained by IPV in health outcomes disparities between rural and urban pregnant women |
Over the last decade, intimate partner violence (IPV) has received increased attention among researchers and practitioners. IPV is a complex health problem as well as a criminal or social problem. Recent population-based surveys have found a 33-37% lifetime prevalence and a 3-12.1% annual prevalence of IPV. Rates of non-lethal IPV are highest among women aged 16-24 residing in low-income households. Among African-American women aged 15-24 years, IPV is the leading cause of premature death from and injury from non-lethal causes. Three to 19% of pregnant women are battered with associated adverse outcomes. Maternal consequences include traumatic injury, miscarriage, late entry into prenatal care, increased unintended or mistimed pregnancy, depression, poor weight gain, increased risk for STIs and urinary tract infections and increased smoking and substance use. All of these health problems are also areas of disparity between African American and white populations. This presentation will describe the baseline cross-sectional analysis of data from the test of the Domestic Violence Enhanced Home Visitation (DOVE) program which is funded by National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR). The DOVE program is an intervention for at risk, pregnant women who have experienced IPV to decrease their exposure to IPV and related adverse health outcomes. The initial baseline findings among approximately 100 rural and urban women will be presented, including the prevalence of IPV in early pregnancy versus pre-pregnancy. In addition, the variance in prenatal health disparities between African American and Anglo women attributed to IPV will be presented, such as maternal smoking, depression, weight gain, STIs, and unintended pregnancies.