A Nationwide Study of Intimate Partner Violence

Intimate partner violence (IPV) refers to physical or sexual violence, stalking, and psychological aggression by an intimate partner. The present study aims to examine the incidence, injury patterns, and outcomes using a representative nationwide data set.

The Nationwide Emergency Department Sample database was queried from 2010 to 2014 to identify IPV in adult patients by injury code E967.3. Demographics, diagnoses, and injury mechanisms were captured. Primary outcome was mortality, and logistic regression analyses were used to compare the baselines and outcomes.

132 806 IPV emergency visits were identified, with 5.1% of patients requiring hospitalization. Most patients were female (92.6%). The most common injury mechanisms were unintentional injury (36%) and striking (22.0%). Contusions of face/scalp/neck (13.2%) and unspecified head injury (6.9%) were the most common diagnoses. Males were significantly older [median and interquartile range of 39 (30, 50)] than females [33 (26, 43)], and were more frequently hospitalized (6.7% vs. 5.0%, P = .002) with more injuries with injury severity score ≥ 15 (.7% vs. .4%, P = .004) than females. Overall, IPV-related mortality was .06%, .26% in males and .05% in females (P = .003). Older age (odds ratio (OR) = 1.053) and male gender (OR = 3.102) were significantly associated with mortality. The annual incidence rate decreased from 9.7 in 2010 to 8.2/100 000 US population in 2014 (R² = .659).

Young women are more likely to be victims of IPV, whereas men are more likely to be older and hospitalized with more severe injuries and worse outcomes.