Physical and Nonphysical Partner Abuse and Other Risk Factors for Low Birth Weight among Full Term and Preterm Babies: A Multiethnic Case-Control Study

Abstract

This study sought to determine the risk of low birth weight from intimate partner abuse. The case-control design was used in a purposively ethnically stratified multisite sample of 1,004 women interviewed during the 72 hours after delivery between 1991 and 1996. Abuse was determined by the Index of Spouse Abuse and a modification of the Abuse Assessment Screen. Separate analyses were conducted for 252 full term and 326 preterm infants. The final multiple logistic regression models were constructed to determine relative risk for low birth weight after controlling for other complications of pregnancy. Physical and nonphysical abuse as determined by the Index of Spouse Abuse were both significant risk factors for low birth weight for the full term infants but not the preterm infants on a bivariate level. However, the risk estimates decreased in significance in the adjusted models. Although today's short delivery stays make it difficult to assess for abuse, it is necessary to screen for domestic violence at delivery, especially for women who may not have obtained prenatal care. The unadjusted significant risk for low birth weight that became nonsignificant when adjusted suggests that other abuse-related maternal health problems (notably low weight gain and poor obstetric history) are confounders (or mediators) that help to explain the relation between abuse and low birth weight in full term infants.

Intimate Partner Violence and Cervical Neoplasia

“…24 Furthermore, it is clear that IPV has physical health effects on women beyond STI and injuries. 1,2,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][47][48][49][50] We found evidence that IPV may be associated with cervical cancer indirectly through chronic stress and through an STI. If IPV were directly linked to cervical neoplasia through increasing risk of an STI, the RR for IPV and cervical neoplasia should be strongest within the strata of women with an STI, and IPV should not be associated with cervical neoplasia among women without an STI.…”

Violencia de la pareja íntima contra las mujeres en el embarazo: una lectura crítica con perspectiva de género

“…Obstetric and birth complications, and other effects on sexual and reproductive health According to this review, intimate partner violence in pregnancy is associated with obstetric and birth complications and other effects on sexual and reproductive health (24,29,40,42,53,56,58,64), mental health consequences (51,(58)(59)(60)(61)(62)(63), the newborn (37-38, 40, 64-66), and neuroendocrine ramifications on mother and child (59). It is crucial to highlight the implications for the newborn, given that low birth weight is closely associated with these cases (19,67).…”

"Gestação e violência: estudo com usuárias de serviços públicos de saúde da Grande São Paulo"

“…Entre eles, sete foram publicados nos Estados Unidos (Campbell at al, 1999;Shumway et al, 1999;Jagoe et al, 2000;Kearney et al, 2004;Coker, SAnderson, Dong, 2004;Neggers et al, 2004), dois na Inglaterra (Johnson et al, 2003;Bacchus, 2004), um na Suécia (Stenson et al 2001), dois no Brasil (Moraes e Reichenheim, 2002;Menezes et al, 2003) e um no México (Castro e Ruiz, 2004).…”

“…Três estudos consistiram em coortes para identificação do impacto da violência na saúde materno-infantil (Neggers et al, 2004;Jagoe et al, 2000;Shumway et al, 1999) e um deles desenvolveu desenho de caso-controle avaliando a violência na gestação e outros fatores de risco para o baixo peso ao nascer (Campbell at al, 1999).…”

“…Cinco estudos constatam associação positiva entre VPI na gestação e partos de filhos com BPN (Parker et al, 1994;Campbell et al, 1999;Núnez-Rívaz et al, 2003;Neggers et al, 2004, Coker et al 2004. Outros, todavia, não encontraram tal associação (Menezes et al, 2003;Jagoe et al 2000 ).…”