Self-reported history of physical intimate partner violence and longitudinal cognitive performance in midlife women

Intimate partner violence affects about a third of women in their lifetimes and can result in short- and long-term health consequences, including less favorable performance on measures of cognitive function.

We assess whether experiencing physical intimate partner violence in midlife was associated with steeper declines in subsequent tests of cognitive performance.

This study used data from 1713 women in the longitudinal cohort Study of Women's Health Across the Nation to relate baseline information on physical intimate partner violence to declines in scores from the Symbol Digit Modalities Test, the East Boston Memory Test and the Digit Span Backwards spanning follow-up visits 7 through 15.

Separate linear mixed models were constructed for each cognitive test outcome. Analyses were adjusted for race-ethnicity, education, financial strain, depressive symptoms, trouble sleeping, and bodily pain.

At Study of Women's Health Across the Nation baseline, 3.1% of participants reported experiencing physical intimate partner violence in the prior year. In adjusted models, women who reported violence evidenced a statistically significant greater annualized decline (-0.17 points, 95% CI: -0.28, -0.06) in working memory (Digit Span Backwards test), compared to women who had not reported prior-year violence at baseline.

Midlife women with a history of physical intimate partner violence exhibited a persistent decrease in the trajectory of working memory. These longitudinal findings extend previous cross-sectional reports which found that physical intimate partner violence had detrimental effects on working memory. These findings provide additional evidence that intimate partner violence is associated with decreases in working memory performance. They underscore the importance of further research into intimate partner violence and cognition during middle age, a particularly understudied life stage.