WHO: Intimate partner violence is a major public health issue

The World Health Organization has recently released its first-ever study on domestic violence, and it’s truly scary.
The WHO reports that intimate partner violence is the most common form of violence against women, that partner violence is still a “hidden” problem, and that the effects of this violence on women is enormous.

“This study shows that women are more at risk from violence at home than in the street and this has serious repercussions for women’s health,” said Dr LEE Jong-wook, Director-General of WHO at the study release in Geneva. “The study also shows how important it is to shine a spotlight on domestic violence globally and treat it as a major public health issue.”
The study is based on interviews with more than 24 000 women from rural and urban areas in 10 countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, Japan, Namibia, Peru, Samoa, Serbia and Montenegro, Thailand, and the United Republic of Tanzania.
…The study finds that one quarter to one half of all women who had been physically assaulted by their partners said that they had suffered physical injuries as a direct result. The abused women were also twice as likely as non-abused women to have poor health and physical and mental problems, even if the violence occurred years before.
…Domestic violence is known to affect women’s sexual and reproductive health and may contribute to increased risk of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. In this study, women who were in physically or sexually abusive relationships were more likely to report that their partner had multiple sexual partners and had refused to use a condom than women in non violent relationships. Women who reported physical or sexual violence by a partner were also more likely to report having had at least one induced abortion or miscarriage than those who did not report violence.

A major problem is that women still don’t report partner violence. At least 20 percent of the women in the study who reported physical violence had never told anyone before being interviewed. Terrifying.