Research Brief: Prevalence of Intimate Partner Violence among Women Veterans Who Utilize Veterans Health Administration Primary Care

This brief is about the rate at which female veterans utilizing VHA primary care experience intimate partner violence, as well as the risk factors for intimate partner violence. In policy and practice, health practitioners should check for signs of intimate partner violence among female veterans and should inform veterans of services and programs for individuals affected by it; family members should be supportive of female veterans who experience intimate partner violence. The VA could offer more mental health services and the DoD could offer employment programs to help female veterans. Suggestions for future research include studying how female veterans who experience intimate partner violence look for healthcare, ensuring complete privacy and anonymity in the study, using several data collection mechanisms to reduce selection bias, and looking at female veterans who do not use VHA facilities for healthcare