Impact of intimate partner violence on alcohol misuse among women in the U.S.: Does race/ethnicity matter?

Background: The aims of this study were to estimate (1) the rates of adult onset alcohol misuse (i.e., binge drinking, frequent heavy drinking, alcohol abuse, and alcohol dependence) by adult onset traumatic intimate partner violence (IPV) status; and (2) the hazard/risk of alcohol misuse associated with prior adult onset IPV among non-Hispanic black, non-Hispanic white and Hispanic women in the United States. Methods: The study sample was drawn from two waves of the National Epidemiologic Surveys on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Cox proportional hazards regression was employed to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI), adjusted for sociodemographics, family history of domestic violence and problem drinking, and other lifetime traumatic experiences. Results: Rates of alcohol misuse were twice as high among women with IPV in each race/ethnicity group. White women had the highest rates, followed by black women, regardless of IPV status. In race/ethnic-specific multivariate analyses, black women with prior IPV had a greater risk of binge drinking (HR 1.6, CI 1.1, 2.2), frequent heavy drinking (HR 1.7, CI 1.1, 2.5), and alcohol abuse (HR 1.5, CI 1.1, 2.1) compared to their IPV negative counterparts; these estimates were higher than those in the white and Hispanic models. The risks associated with IPV among white women were greater for all outcomes except alcohol dependence than those among Hispanic women, but the latter estimates were statistically nonsignificant. Conclusions: These findings stress the importance of primary and secondary alcohol intervention efforts among women reporting IPV experiences, particularly among black women.