Intimate partner violence and alcohol consumption

Acesse: Intimate_partner_violence_and_alcohol_consumption.pdf –

Intimate partner violence and alcohol consumption

Marcos Zaleski, Ilana Pinsky, Ronaldo Laranjeira, Suhasini, Ramisetty-Mikler, Raul Caetano
Rev Saúde Pública 2010;44(1)

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is considered a public health problem worldwide. Most of the research in this area has been conducted in developed countries,especially in the United States (USA), where several population studies have been performed in the last two decades. In the 1985 National Family Violence. Survey,23 16% of American couples had experienced one or more types of IPV in the 12 months preceding the interviews. The majority of aggressions were considered mild violence (slapping and shoving,for example). However, about one third of episodes reported were serious (beating, choking, hitting with an object, forced sex, threat with or use of a knife or firearm). The same study concluded that the index of male partner violence against females was similar to that of female partners against males, as observed in 1975 and confirmed by other studies.1,23 Even though women perpetrate as much violence as their male partners in terms of frequency, they are more likely to suffer serious injuries.25 A study performed in the United States revealed that about 20% of traumarelated visits to an emergency department and 25% of homicides in women involved IPV.19 In the United States, IPV estimates based on data from the National Longitudinal Survey, conducted in 1995, showed that the 12-month IPV index among couples varies between 17% and 39%, with indices of male violence against women and female violence against men corresponding to 13,6% and 18,2%, respectively.22