Abusive relationships are very common in these days. Relationships these days don’t involve respect, trust and consideration for the other person. In fact, it is filled with disrespect, mistreatment, jealousy, superiority complex and even physical violence. According to some researchers, women are more effected by these types of relationships leading to long term health issues. Women who are abused by their partner are more prone to physical and mental health issues which persists throughout their lifetime. This was found by the first long-term Australian study to investigate the health impacts of intimate partner violence.
The research, led by the University of Newcastle’s research centre for generational health and ageing, followed 16,761 participants from the Women’s Health Australia study for 16 years from 1996. Three cohorts of women, born from 1921-26, 1946-51 and 1973-78, were asked during surveys taken throughout their lives whether they had ever been in a violent relationship, and about their physical and mental health. The study only considered violence from a partner or spouse, and not general family violence, for example perpetrated by other family members.
At the start of the study, 8% of women who were 1973-78 born, and 12% of women 1946-51 born, had experienced intimate partner violence. Sixteen years later, 26% of women born 1973-78 had experienced intimate partner violence compared with 16% of women born 1946-51. Of the 3,568 women born 1921-26, 184 (5%) reported having experienced intimate partner violence in the first survey. This group were only asked about their experience of intimate partner violence during the first survey.
Despite the narrow definition of family violence used by researchers, “The results are striking,” they write in their findings, published in the journal, PLoS ONE, on Tuesday.
Across health measures including physical functioning, social functioning, general health, bodily pain, vitality, and emotional and mental health, women who had experienced intimate partner violence “recorded significantly poorer health than women who never experienced intimate partner violence, across generations and along the life course”.
“Results for physical health are strongly suggestive of a lifetime deficit in physical health that is associated with intimate partner violence,” the paper says.
Women, if you’re in an abusive relationship, then it’s high time for you get out of it and get a healthy and better life. Love yourself more than loving anyone else.
