Although there have been studies that show the adverse effect of domestic abuse on female survivors, how does it impact their mortality? A recent UK research, published in the Journal of The American Heart Association studied its long-term impact of domestic abuse. They found that female survivors face an increased risk of subsequent type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, and all‐cause mortality. [1]
Domestic abuse survivors are at 40% higher risk for developing all-cause mortality. Photo Credit: Shutterstock
The researchers used data from a retrospective cohort study from primary care patients. Spanning over 23 years, from 1995 to 2017, it consisted of 18,547 domestic abuse survivors based in the UK. Their health data was compared with a control group of 72,231 women who had not faced any such situation. Their aim was to find if there was any association between domestic abuse and subsequent cardiometabolic diseases and all‐cause mortality. Cardiometabolic diseases include type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension.
The team found that survivors were under a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease (31 percent), type 2 diabetes mellitus (51 percent) and all‐cause mortality (44 percent). However, they did not find any association in case of hypertension. Given the high prevalence of domestic abuse, the team felt that diagnosticians and other medical professionals should keep this data in mind when treating survivors.
