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Abstract

This study describes the associations between intimate partner violence (IPV) and HIV risk among urban, predominantly minority women. Interviews were conducted with 1,590 women, predominantly African American and Latina, attending hospital-based health care clinics. Approximately 1 in 5 women reported experiencing IPV in their current primary heterosexual relationships; about 1 in 8 women reported experiencing IPV in the preceding 6 months. Compared to women who reported no IPV in their primary relationships, women reporting past or current IPV perpetrated by their primary partners were more likely to report having multiple sexual partners, a past or current sexually transmitted infection (STI), inconsistent use or nonuse of condoms, and a partner with known HIV risk factors. These findings indicate that urban minority women experiencing IPV are at elevated risk for HIV infection, results that carry important implications in the efforts to improve HIV and IPV risk assessment protocols and intervention/prevention strategies for women in primary health care settings.

Young women's views on testing for sexually transmitted infections and HIV as a risk reduction strategy in mutual and choice-restricted relationships

“…Furthermore, our findings indicated that for young women who had little control over their safe sex decisions, negative test results made it more difficult to negotiate condom use, further undermining one of the most effective risk reduction strategies. These findings are consistent with those of other studies that have shown that abusive and controlling relationship dynamics tend to restrict young women's ability to negotiate for condom use or mutual monogamy, thereby increasing HIV risk 16,18,23,24,26 . Recognizing this increased STI/HIV risk, these young women chose to negotiate for HIV/STI testing because it was the only risk reduction tool their partners would agree to.…”

“…More specifically, studies have found that young women who are victims of IPV are more likely to fear their partner's response to condom negotiation 23 , less likely to use condoms 24,25 , more likely to have multiple partners 24 and more likely to report having non-monogamous male partners 23,26 . Women with a history of IPV have a 2.5 times greater risk of ever having had an STI compared to non-abused women 24 . Similarly, a national study in the U.S. found that 12% of all HIV infections among women were a result of IPV 27 .…”

Anxiety disorders and intimate partner violence: can the association be explained by coexisting conditions or borderline personality traits?

“…Female victims of IPV have been shown to have higher rates of depression (Huang, Yang, & omaye, 2011), sexually transmitted diseases including HIV (Gilbert, el-Bassel, Schilling, Wada, & Bennet, 2000;Wu, el-Bassel, Witte, Gilbert, & Chang, 2003), higher rates of delivery of low birth weight babies particularly among lower socio-economic groups (Rosen, Seng, tolman, & Mallinger, 2007) and higher rates of termination of pregnancy (Öberg, Stenson, Skalkidou, & Heimer, 2014). Victims of domestic violence have higher uses of all levels of health care including accident and emergency care, mental health care, physical health care and primary care compared with women who were not victimised (Ulrich et al, 2003).…”

Characteristics of African American Women and Their Partners With Perceived Concurrent Partnerships in 4 Rural Counties in the Southeastern US

“…Both of these forms of violence have been associated with other STI acquisition risk factors. Past IPV has been associated with more sexual partners (23), history of STIs (23), low/no condom use (23), and partners with known HIV risk factors (23). History of forced sexual contact has been found to be associated with more sexual partners (24) and past STIs (24, 25).…”