Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #107416

Janice A. Du Mont, EdD¹, Tonia Forte, MSc¹, Ilene Hyman, PhD², Marsha Cohen, MD, MHSc³, and Sarah Romans, MB, MD⁴. (1) Centre for Research in Women's Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, 790 Bay Street, 7th Floor, Toronto, ON M5G 1N8, Canada, 416-351-3800 ext. 2705, j.dumont@utoronto.ca, (2) Centre for Research in Women's Health, Sunnybrook & Women's College Health Sciences Centre and University of Toronto, 790 Bay St., 7th Floor, Toronto, ON M5G 1N8, Canada, (3) Centre for Research in Women's Health, Sunnybrook & Women's College Health Sciences Centre and the University of Toronto, 790 Bay St., 7th Floor, Toronto, ON M5G 1N8, Canada, (4) Centre for Research in Women's Health, Sunnybrook & Women's College Health Sciences Centre and the University of Toronto, 790 Bay Street, 7th Floor, Toronto, ON M5G 1N8, Canada

Although the adverse physical and psychological sequelae of intimate partner violence (IPV) are well documented, few population-based studies have analyzed factors associated with service use following IPV and none have identified those associated with increased service use over time. We examined the Canadian 1993 Violence Against Women Survey (VAWS) and the 1999 General Social Survey (GSS), national, telephone surveys to compare factors associated with help-seeking among women who reported physical and/or sexual violence by a current or ex-partner (n=1866 and n=899, respectively). Using logistic regression analyses, we found that younger women in the VAWS (OR: 0.73; CI: 0.64-0.83) as opposed to older women in the GSS cohort (OR: 1.24; CI: 1.04-1.48) were more likely to use services. As well, GSS lower income women (OR: 1.57; CI: 1.02-2.42) were more likely to seek help. However, data analyses also revealed several similarities in the factors associated with service use across the two surveys. In both, women who feared their lives were in danger (VAWS, OR: 2.11, CI: 1.44-3.09; GSS, OR: 1.68, CI: 1.13-2.50), had disclosed the abuse to someone (VAWS, OR: 1.64, CI: 1.06, 2.54; GSS, OR: 2.79, CI: 1.72-4.55), were being emotionally abused (VAWS, OR: 2.69, CI: 1.63, 4.45; GSS, OR: 2.92, CI: 1.60-5.31), and had children witnessing the abuse (VAWS, OR: 2.44, CI: 1.69-3.52; GSS, OR: 1.57, CI: 1.09, 2.25) were more likely to have sought help. Results reveal that service uptake is not equal across abused women and point to the importance of understanding barriers to help-seeking.

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