Violence and women's health. The role of epidemiology

Survival, a basic indicator of health, indicates that violence is a threat to the health of women. Furthermore, the quality of women's lives is compromised by the threat of violence, which creates a sense of chronic endangerment. "Stranger danger" is a misplaced emphasis; community-based investigations in the past decade have underscored that women are at highest risk of homicide, physical assault, and sexual assault at the hands of a man they know, often their husband or male intimate. Potential contributions of the science of epidemiology are identified and the relative absence of epidemiologists working in the field is noted. Violence against women may be an important, although often ignored, confounding variable or effect modifier in studies of women's health.