Update on Intimate Partner Violence and Medical Education

Abstract

A young woman sits in front of you in the office. Based on the statistics, there is a one-in-four chance that a serious condition may be adversely affecting her healthpartner violence [1]. One quarter of women and almost 8 percent of men report sexual or physical violence by an intimate partner, which amounts to about 4.8 million women and 2.9 million men annually in the United States [2,3]. Intimate partner violence (IPV), the preferred term, is present in every race, ethnicity, age group, class, and neighborhood in America. The problem appears worse in youth and young adults-70 to 88 percent of adolescent or college women experience at least one incident of either physical or sexual violence [4,5]. One episode of violence also appears to put a patient at greater risk for future episodes.