Intimate partner violence and women’s health: the private and social burden

Abstract

ABSTRACT We assess the impact of intimate partner violence (IPV) against women on their health and healthcare use, finding that IPV substantially worsens health, and increases the hazards of hospitalization, emergency care, and sedative consumption. We exploit two compatible samples from the 2011 Spanish Violence Against Women and National Health surveys. We estimate the effect of IPV on health using a bivariate model that exploits woman’s awareness of IPV among female acquaintances to account for IPV endogeneity, and the effect of IPV on healthcare through a two-stage procedure. Hence, IPV originates high private cost, but also public, by draining healthcare resources.