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Intimate partner violence and health-related quality of life in European men and women: findings from the DOVE study

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Abstract

Purpose

Little is known on the specific relation between being a perpetrator or both a victim and perpetrator of intimate partner violence (IPV) and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). We assessed the association between HRQoL and abuse, considering men and women as victims, perpetrators or reciprocally.

Methods

Participants were adult men and women (n = 3,496), randomly selected from the general population of six European cities. The Revised-Conflict-Tactics-Scales and the Medical-Outcomes-Study 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) were used to measure IPV and HRQoL. The age-, education-, and city-adjusted mean scores[standard error] of the physical and of the mental SF-36 component summaries were used to compare victims-only, perpetrators-only, and those involved in both (bidirectional or reciprocal cases) with those not involved in past-year and lifetime physical assault and/or sexual coercion.

Results

The physical component summary was significantly lower in women involved in past-year bidirectional physical assault compared with non-abused women. The mental component summary in women not involved in IPV was significantly higher than in those physically abused, regardless of type of involvement. Women victims-only of past-year sexual coercion and victims or involved in bidirectional concomitant physical and sexual IPV also presented lower scores in the mental component summary than women not involved in IPV. In men, significantly lower scores in the mental component summary were found in the past-year bidirectional physically assaulted group and among those involved bidirectionally in both physical and sexual IPV compared with men not involved in IPV.

Conclusion

Experiencing physical and sexual IPV is negatively associated with HRQoL. Lower scores in the mental component summary of the SF-36 are evident among female victims and among males and females involved in intimate partner violence as both victims and perpetrators when compared to females and males not involved in violence.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all men and women who generously participated in the DOVE project in the different cities across Europe. This work was supported by the Executive Agency for Health and Consumers—European Commission [Contract Number: 20081310] and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology [SFRH/BD/66388/2009 and PTDC/SAU-SAP/122904/2010].

Conflict of interest

None declared.

Ethical standard

The manuscript does not contain clinical studies or patient data.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Public Health, University of Porto, Rua das Taipas, 135, 4050-600, Porto, Portugal

    Diogo Costa & Henrique Barros

  2. Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences, Kingston University and St George’s, University of London, London, UK

    Eleni Hatzidimitriadou

  3. Department of Sociology, National School of Public Health, Athens, Greece

    Elli Ioannidi-Kapolou

  4. University of Emden, Emden, Germany

    Jutta Lindert

  5. Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA

    Jutta Lindert

  6. Institution for Health Sciences, Mid Sweden University, Sundsvall, Sweden

    Joaquim Soares

  7. Department of Psychology, Mid Sweden University, Östersund, Sweden

    Örjan Sundin

  8. Institute of Sociology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    Olga Toth

  9. Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Predictive Medicine and Public Health, University of Porto Medical School, Porto, Portugal

    Diogo Costa & Henrique Barros

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  1. Diogo Costa
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  2. Eleni Hatzidimitriadou
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  3. Elli Ioannidi-Kapolou
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  4. Jutta Lindert
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  5. Joaquim Soares
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  6. Örjan Sundin
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  8. Henrique Barros
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Correspondence to Diogo Costa.

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Costa, D., Hatzidimitriadou, E., Ioannidi-Kapolou, E. et al. Intimate partner violence and health-related quality of life in European men and women: findings from the DOVE study. Qual Life Res 24, 463–471 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-014-0766-9

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