Intimate Partner Violence: A Hidden Health Crisis

Context

1. Recent global health research, including a Lancet study using Global Burden of Disease 2023 data, shows that intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major cause of poor health among women in South Asia.
2. For women of reproductive age, IPV causes more long-term health damage than obesity, smoking, alcohol use, or high blood sugar.
3. This evidence demands a shift in thinking; domestic violence must be seen as a health risk, not only a social or legal issue.

What is Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)?

1. Intimate partner violence refers to physical, sexual, emotional, or economic abuse by a current or former spouse or partner.
2. It includes acts such as beating, marital rape, coercive control, threats, and financial deprivation.
3. IPV usually does not happen once; it continues over many years, slowly damaging a woman’s physical and mental health.

How IPV Affects Health?

1. IPV causes serious mental health problems, such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and suicidal thoughts.
2. It also leads to long-term physical illnesses, including heart disease, digestive problems, chronic pain, and constant tiredness.
3. Women facing violence are at higher risk of sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy-related complications.
4. In South Asia, IPV is among the top causes of disability and chronic illness in women.

Why Domestic Violence Remains Invisible in Healthcare

1. Women experiencing IPV often visit health facilities repeatedly with non-specific symptoms, such as chest pain, palpitations, insomnia, or unexplained pain.
2. Medical investigations frequently return normal results, leading to symptomatic treatment rather than identification of the root cause.
3. Medical education in India treats domestic violence largely as a forensic or legal issue, not as a clinical risk factor.
4. Doctors are rarely trained to ask about violence safely, recognise trauma patterns, or provide trauma-informed care.

Problems in Medical Training and Healthcare Systems

1. The medical curriculum in India gives very little importance to gender-based violence.
2. Young doctors may sense abuse but do not know how to question, record, or respond properly.
3. Families often block mental health referrals due to stigma or fear.
4. As a result, women receive treatment again and again, while the real cause of illness remains unaddressed.

Why Reframing IPV as a Public Health Issue Matters

1. Viewing IPV as a health risk shifts focus from isolated incidents to long-term disease prevention.
2. It explains why conditions like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and mental illness are more prevalent among abused women.
3. This reframing integrates IPV into non-communicable disease prevention, mental health care, and primary healthcare systems.
4. Without this shift, healthcare systems will continue treating diseases while ignoring one of their main causes.

Challenges and Way Forward

Implications

1. Failure to address IPV within healthcare systems perpetuates preventable illness, disability, and premature death among women.
2. Health systems risk treating symptoms indefinitely while ignoring a major underlying cause.
3. Addressing IPV effectively can reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases and mental health disorders.
4. Recognising IPV as a health issue strengthens gender equity, preventive healthcare, and social justice.

Conclusion

Intimate partner violence is not merely a private or social problem; it is a silent, long-term health risk that shapes disease patterns across generations. Evidence now demands that healthcare systems recognise domestic violence as a core determinant of health, integrate it into medical education and practice, and adopt trauma-informed, survivor-centred care. Without this shift, the health system will continue to treat diseases while remaining blind to one of their most powerful causes.