No abstract

The objective of this study are (a) to explore the factors, which facilitate or inhibit women's responses to intimate partner violence (IPV) and their ability to leave a violent relationship; (b) to identify patterns of behavior in abused women based on their perception of the violence and the actions they take to find help or a solution to the problems derived from IPV. Semistructured interviews were carried out. The critical path is defined as the sequence of decisions and actions taken by affected women to address the violence they experienced. Based on this concept, we identified several factors that affect women's responses to violence, and categorized them into inhibiting and facilitating factors. We also identified three patterns of behavior: the first one is theoretically as the ideal critical path, whereas in the third pattern the process is less like the ideal critical path.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is recognized as a worldwide public health problem. Most theories ascribe IPV to individual, family, or cultural factors. Authors analyzed different residential areas in Spain in terms of IPV frequency as well as its impact on health and the use of services. A standardized self-administered cross-sectional survey was administered to ever-partnered adult women ages 18 to 70 years receiving care at primary health care centers (N = 10,322). Logistic regression analyzed the association between the level of rurality and health indicators, IPV, and use of services. The lowest frequency of IPV among women is reflected in higher rurality. Women of medium and low rurality presented a poorer self-perceived health and more physical health problems. Women from medium and low rurality areas declared seeking health services more frequently. These results show the importance of the environment in health and indicate the need for research on urban-rural differences in health problems to develop specific public health programs for each country.