Intimate partner violence and incidence of type 2 diabetes in women

We sought to estimate the association between intimate partner violence, a prevalent psychosocial stressor, and the incidence of type 2 diabetes in women.

In 2001, 68,376 Nurses' Health Study II participants answered questions on physical, sexual, and psychological intimate partner violence in adulthood (age ≥18 years) and reported the years in which any abuse occurred. We used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate the associations between intimate partner violence exposures and incidence of type 2 diabetes from 2001 to 2007. We also estimated effects of duration and time since intimate partner violence on type 2 diabetes incidence.

Of 68,376 respondents, 64,732 met inclusion criteria at the 2001 baseline; of these, 23% reported lifetime physical intimate partner violence, 11% reported lifetime sexual intimate partner violence, and 8% reported moderate and <2% reported severe psychological intimate partner violence. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs for type 2 diabetes, adjusted for potential confounders, were 1.18 (1.00-1.39) and 1.08 (0.86-1.35) for more than one lifetime episode of physical and sexual intimate partner violence, respectively, and 1.78 (1.21-2.61) for severe psychological abuse. Addition of updated BMI and other diabetes risk factors reduced the physical intimate partner violence HR to 1.12 (0.94-1.33) and the psychological intimate partner violence HR to 1.61 (1.09-2.38).

Physical intimate partner violence is modestly associated with incidence of type 2 diabetes in this population. Severe psychological violence may substantially increase type 2 diabetes risk.