Mental Health and Social Function Among Women Subjected to Intimate Partner Violence: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Intimate partner violence is a serious public health problem in all societies that affects all aspects of the victim’s health, especially mental health. The present study aimed to determine the relationship between intimate partner violence and mental health among Iranian women who referred to the Forensic Medicine Center in Tehran. This cross-sectional study was done on 196 married women who referred to the south center of Forensic Medicine in Tehran. Data were collected in 2013 by using three questionnaires: a demographic questionnaire, CTS-2, and GHQ-28. Data analyzed by using SPSS-14 software. The age of participants was 29.9±6.3 years (range 18-57 years). Most women were housekeepers (73%) with moderate economic status (48.5%). Physical violence had the highest mean score (37.29±16.80); and after that, highest mean scores are related to Psychological violence 29.37±7.01, verbal violence 14.83±8.15, Physical violence leading to injury 14.47±6.85, and sexual violence 8.38±7.36, respectively. Verbal violence didn’t show any relation with all subscales of mental health. The somatic and anxiety symptoms were significantly correlated to total, and all violence subscales score (P<0.001). Also, social function was correlated to total violence score (P=0.032), Sexual (P=0.002), and psychological violence (P=0.025). Depression symptoms were correlated to total violence score (P<0.001), physical leading to damage violence (P<0.001), Sexual violence (P<0.001), Psychological violence (P=0.002), and physical violence (P<0.001). Our results showed IPV is related to the mental health of battered women, but verbal violence didn’t show any statistical relationship with somatic, anxiety, and depression symptoms and social function.