Abstract
BackgroundViolence against women is a significant health problem and a hidden phenomenon, in Italy that about 31% of the women have been victims of violence once in life. Aims of this study are to describe characteristics of women victims of violence (VV) attending the EDs in the Lazio region in 2008 and to illustrate the frequency and characteristics of previous ED visits.MethodsUsing the Emergency Information System, visits of women, (15–49 years), in the 60 EDs, for a violent trauma have been analysed. For each VV identified, we considered the last episode and searched for ED attendances in a six year period (2003–08) in order to identify other visits. We performed descriptive analyses of socio-demographic and clinical factors of VV and we analyzed the impact previous ED visits. We compared ED utilization of women VV with a random sample of women with the same age distribution who gave birth in 2008.ResultsIn 2008, 7,725 ED attendances of women VV were found (1.1% of the ED visits) corresponding to 6,936 women (prevalence = 52.0x10,000). The mean number of ED visits for each woman in five years was 5.0 (1–190). Prevalent diagnoses were contusions (45.8%), neurotic disorders (5.4%) complications of medical care (6.3%). The women were young, approximately 70% were residents in Rome or the surrounding areas. Foreign women were three times more likely to visit the ED for intentional injuries than were Italian women (114.1 vs 44.4 per 10.000).ConclusionsThis study shows high prevalence of violence against women in Lazio region, Italy. Most of the women have been visited by the ED several times before the violent episode, often with traumas. ED medical and nursing staff should be prepared and trained to successfully manage victims of violence.
Highlights
Violence against women is a significant health problem and a hidden phenomenon, in Italy that about 31% of the women have been victims of violence once in life
Through a record linkage procedure we identified the last Emergency Department (ED) visit caused by intentional injury, called it the “index visit”, in order to retrospectively follow up this group of women we performed another record linkage procedure using Emergency Information System (EIS) archives from 2003 to 2008, and selected all the ED visits of the cohort (Figure 1)
In 2008 we selected from the EIS 7,725 ED visits for intentional injuries the 6,936 women aged 15–49
Summary
Violence against women is a significant health problem and a hidden phenomenon, in Italy that about 31% of the women have been victims of violence once in life. Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) have shown that violence is one of the leading causes of death for people aged 15–44 years worldwide, accounting for about 14% of deaths among males and 7% of deaths among females [1]. A study on 510 women who visited social service or health facilities found high prevalence of violence, mostly perpetrated by men well known to the victims, with 10.2% having experienced physical/sexual violence in the last 12 months, regardless of the perpetrator. Other studies confirm that one of the most common forms of violence against women is performed by a husband or an intimate male partner [4,5,6]
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