Here is an article discussing new research into the impact of domestic abuse on the health of women. The study examined the responses and medical records of over 3,000 women. From the article:
Many of these health problems are not commonly understood as being associated with violence, such as abdominal pain, chest pain, headaches, acid reflux, urinary tract infections, and menstrual disorders.
"Roughly half of the diagnoses we examined were more common in abused women than in other women," said Amy Bonomi, lead author of the study and associate professor of human development and family science at Ohio State University.
There was also this:
Compared with never-abused women, victims had an almost six-fold increase in clinically identified substance abuse, a more than three-fold increase in receiving a depression diagnosis, a three-fold increase in sexually transmitted diseases and a two-fold increase in lacerations.
The article also notes this is the first time the data were gathered from medical records, rather than relying on subjects' self-report. This gives the diagnostic information more credibility. The authors pointed out that as these diagnoses become more present in a patient, they should serve as a cue to formally screen for abuse, as many women will not spontaneously volunteer this information.
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