Long-term costs of intimate partner violence in a sample of female HMO enrollees.

Objectives: To compare costs associated with intimate partner violence (IPV) overall and for selected physical health problems in a non-poor, privately insured sample.

Methods: We compared 185 women aged 21-55 who were physically and/or sexually abused between 1989 and 1997 and enrolled in a multisite metropolitan health maintenance organization (HMO) to 198 never abused women enrolled in the same plan who had been matched using propensity score stratification. Costs associated with HMO visits, hospital stays, referrals, and emergency room (ER) visits, prescriptions, and radiology are based on the Medicare Resource-Based Relative Value System, expressed in 2005 dollars.

Risk factors for femicide in abusive relationships: results from a multisite case control study.

Objectives: This 11-city study sought to identify risk factors for femicide in abusive relationships.

Methods: Proxies of 220 intimate partner femicide victims identified from police or medical examiner records were interviewed, along with 343 abused control women.

Results: Preincident risk factors associated in multivariate analyses with increased risk of intimate partner femicide included perpetrator's access to a gun and previous threat with a weapon, perpetrator's stepchild in the home, and estrangement, especially from a controlling partner.

Intimate partner violence and physical health consequences.

Background: Domestic violence results in long-term and immediate health problems. This study compared selected physical health problems of abused and never abused women with similar access to health care.

Methods: A case-control study of enrollees in a multisite metropolitan health maintenance organization sampled 2535 women enrollees aged 21 to 55 years who responded to an invitation to participate; 447 (18%) could not be contacted, 7 (0.