Association between intimate partner violence and psychiatric diagnoses
among pregnant women in the STOP-VIO-PREG cohort: a cross-sectional
study utilising Danish registers.
Abstract
Objective Intimate partner violence is a global health concern with a
wide range of consequences. This article aims to assess the association
between intimate partner violence among pregnant women and
register-based psychiatric diagnoses, taking risk factors and
non-responders into account. Design A cross-sectional study utilising
Danish registers Setting Denmark Population 28,697 pregnant women
Methods Pregnant women attending antenatal care in the Region of
Southern Denmark, or the Capital Region, took part in the routinely
collected PROdata questionnaire containing the Abuse Assessment
Screen(AAS) during their first trimester, from December 2019 to
September 2022. After questionnaire collection, data was linked with
multiple Danish registers, including the Danish Psychiatric Treatment
Register. On an individual level, the psychiatric diagnoses were
detected in the registers, and if the woman had a psychiatric diagnosis
within the last five years, she was grouped as either moderate or severe
psychiatric diagnoses. Main Outcome Measures Moderate or severe
psychiatric diagnoses Results In total, 28,697 women received the
PROdata questionnaire, and 23,768 (82,8%) responded to the AAS. The
prevalence of screening positive for IPV was 5.34% (n=1269). We found a
strong association between intimate partner violence and both moderate
and severe psychiatric diagnoses with an increased adjusted OR of 3.01
(95% CI: 2.51, 3.60) and 4.34 (95% CI: 3.27, 5.85), respectively,
compared with women with no psychiatric diagnoses. Conclusion Our
results show a strong link between Intimate Partner Violence and
psychiatric diagnoses among pregnant women. It also provides important
information on risk factors for violence and characteristics of
non-responders to digital screening.