Physical and Psychological Health Outcomes of Pregnancy-Related Intimate Partner Violence

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a public health issue that transcends cultures and nationalities. Women and men have been impacted by sexual violence through rape and other types of IPV. Each year, women experience IPV before and during pregnancies and are impacted by physical and psychological outcomes as a result. The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of IPV on the health outcomes of diabetes (Types 1, 2, and gestational), high blood pressure before pregnancy, and depression/anxiety among adult women before and during pregnancy. The social ecological model provided the framework for this quantitative cross-sectional study that included national data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System between 2012 and 2015. A series of binary logistic regressions was conducted. Findings indicated significant predictive relationships between IPV and diabetes before pregnancy (OR = 1.20, 95% CI = 1.01-1.43), high blood pressure before pregnancy (OR = 1.65, 95% CI =1.47-1.85), and depression/anxiety before and during pregnancy, respectively (OR = 3.14, 95% CI 2.91-3.35 and OR = 9.03, 95% CI 7.37-11.05) after controlling for age, income, and race. A social change implication of this study is that results from this project may assist in increasing societal knowledge of what IPV is and its physical and psychological impacts on women before and during pregnancy