Health-Related Costs of Intimate Partner Violence: Using Linked Police and Health Registers

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Economics
• Sociology

Background:

• Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant public health issue with substantial economic burdens.
• Estimating the direct health-related costs associated with IPV is crucial for resource allocation and prevention strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To estimate the direct health-related costs attributable to intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization.
• To analyze the long-term economic impact of IPV on healthcare utilization over a 5-year period.

Main Methods:

• Utilized nationwide linked data from Finnish police reports and healthcare registers (2015-2020).
• Employed econometric models and exact matching to identify IPV victims and create a comparable reference group.
• Analyzed individual-level data to estimate attributable healthcare costs.

Main Results:

• The mean unadjusted attributable healthcare cost for IPV victims was €6,910 over 5 years.
• Adjusted mean attributable health-related costs were €3,280 over 5 years, with consistently higher annual costs for victims.
• IPV victims showed over-representation among those outside the labor force and lower representation among the educated, indicating a socioeconomic gradient.

Conclusions:

• Adverse health consequences of IPV persist for at least 5 years, leading to excess health service use.
• Healthcare costs associated with IPV vary by socioeconomic factors, highlighting disparities in victimization.
• Linked register data are essential for understanding IPV characteristics and assessing its healthcare costs for informed prevention and resource allocation.