ORIGINAL RESEARCH The Economic Burden of Intimate Partner Violence in Ecuador: Setting the Agenda for Future Research and Violence Prevention Policies

DOI: 10.5811/westjem.2013.2.15697 Introduction: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a widespread social structural problem that affects a great proportion of Ecuadorian women. IPV is a sexually, psychologically, or physically coercive act against an adult or adolescent woman by a current or former intimate partner. Not-for-profit groups in Ecuador report that 70 % of women experience 1 of the forms of IPV sometime during their lifetime, but population-based surveys suggest that 41 % of Ecuadorian women are exposed to emotional violence