Prevalence and Risk Factors for Intimate Partner Violence-related Brain Injury in New York

Abstract

<h3>Research Objectives</h3> To identify the prevalence and risk factors for intimate partner violence (IPV)-related traumatic brain injury (TBI) in survivors in New York. <h3>Design</h3> Retrospective chart review. <h3>Setting</h3> Community Justice Center. <h3>Participants</h3> Forty IPV survivors aged 35-48 years [(M 35.1; SD 13.2); 95% female, 50% Caucasian, 42.5% African American, 7.5% refugees, and 93% with previous hypoxic injury] assessed a mean of 4.4±11 days since head trauma. Our sample showed a higher proportion of African Americans (227%) and refugees (650%) than the County's average on race. <h3>Interventions</h3> Not applicable. <h3>Main Outcome Measures</h3> The HELPS was used to identify TBI prevalence in IPV survivors at the initial Center visit. <h3>Results</h3> Forty-one percent of survivors demonstrated a positive history of IPV-related TBI. Fifty-five percent reported needing an emergency room visit; 42.5% reported loss of consciousness; 45% sustained symptoms consistent with mild TBI such as headaches or fatigue. In multivariate models, after controlling for race, female sex (p=0.003) and refugee status (p=0.002) were strongly associated with the number of previous brain injuries (PBI). No other demographic variables were significantly related to the number of PBI. <h3>Conclusions</h3> Congruent with previous findings,1,2 our data indicated a high prevalence of IPV-related TBI (about two in five survivors) in New York. Notably, our sample comprises a higher percentage of African Americans and refugees compared to the County's demographics. We found that being a female or a refugee increases the risk of sustaining IPV-related TBI. Though shown as high, IPV-related TBI prevalence varies among samples.3,4 Future research must determine better nationwide estimates of brain injury prevalence in the IPV population as recommended by the recent GAO4 report to improve resource allocation and clinical management. <h3>Author(s) Disclosures</h3> The authors declare no conflict of interest.