RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Lifetime

co-occurrence of violence victimisation and symptoms of psychological ill health: a cross-sectional study of Swedish male and female clinical and population samples Johanna Simmons1*, Barbro Wijma2 and Katarina Swahnberg2,3 Background: Lifetime co-occurrence of violence victimisation is common. A large proportion of victims report being exposed to multiple forms of violence (physical, sexual, emotional violence) and/or violence by multiple kinds of perpetrators (family members, intimate partners, acquaintances/strangers). Yet much research focuses on only one kind of victimisation. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between symptoms of psychological ill health, and A) exposure to multiple forms of violence, and B) violence by multiple perpetrators. Method: Secondary analysis of cross-sectional data previously collected for prevalence studies on interpersonal violence in Sweden was used. Respondents were recruited at hospital clinics (women n = 2439, men n = 1767) and at random from the general population (women n = 1168, men n = 2924). Multinomial regression analysis was used to estimate associations between exposure to violence and symptoms of psychological ill health