Impact of Physical and Sexual Abuse on Women

The physical trauma inflicted to women by their husbands goes far beyond the momentary contusions and bruised eyes. The new study made by a team of the World Health Organization (WHO), led by Claudia Garcia-Moreno and published in the journal The Lancet, relies on data about domestic violence collected from 10 countries (Brazil, Peru, Bangladesh, Japan, Namibia, Samoa, Serbia, Montenegro, Ethiopia and Tanzania). It shows that regular physical and sexual abuse causes troubled pregnancies or miscarriages, genital issues, gastrointestinal disorders and various types of chronic pain.

This is the most detailed research on this issue made in developing countries. In 8 of the 15 urban and rural investigated areas, over 14% of the women were abused by their husbands, having been severely injured more than five times. Nevertheless, the most severe consequences of the domestic violence could be the psychical ones: depression, anxiety, phobias and substance abuse, which last long after the physical trauma has gone. Physically or sexually abused women were thrice more likely to think of committing suicide and four times more inclined to attempt it.

"Domestic violence against women is a worldwide problem. Most previous studies have been national in scope, and focused primarily on Europe and North America," epidemiologist Riyadh Lafta of the Mustansiriya Medical School in Baghdad told The Lancet.

This study, made on over 24,000 women, confirms that the issue is critical in the Middle East and Eastern Asia. The rate of women beaten by their partners ranged from 19% in Ethiopian countryside to 55% in Peruvian villages. Relatively low rates of domestic violence were also found in the rural and urban Bangladesh (24.8 and 26.7%) and urban Japan (26.6%), while countries with high levels of domestic violence were Thailand and Brazil, in both rural and urban environments.

"In addition to being a breach of human rights, the high prevalence of partner violence and its associations with poor health... Further studies should measure the impact of male violence against women on mortality and life expectancy," wrote the authors.