Intimate partner violence related head-neck-face injuries in women at Hospital Emergency Departments: visible signs and invisible harm

Abstract

Background: Head-neck-face injury has been recognized as one of the commonest injuries identified in intimate partner violence related injuries at hospital emergency departments. However, few studies have been investigated the reasons of attack, social factors of abusers and victims and women’s help-seeking behaviours. Objectives: The study aims to examine the patterns of head-neck-face injuries, reasons for attack, abusive and social histories by reviewing 5-year hospital data. Methods: By using a retrospective cohort study, medical charts of abused women (n=854) presented to the hospital emergency departments in Hong Kong from 2010 to 2014 were reviewed by research nurses. The medical records were identified from two computerized systems and individual medical charts were then retrieved from Medical Record Offices and reviewed manually. Results: There were 627 (73.4%) women admitted to emergency departments due to head-neck-face injuries, which were the most common injuries among them. Some of them (15%) complained loss of conscious, dizziness, nausea, vomiting after injuries. The mean age was around 38.6. Majority of them were married (82.3%) and some of them were cohabited (13.6%). Half of the women had reported multiple episodes of physical violence attack and 16% of women disclosed psychological abuse, sexual abuse and economic abuse histories with the intimate partners. The reasons of the attack episode including couple relationship problems, extra-marital affairs, sexual problems, in-law conflicts, parenting issues, financial problems, alcoholism, drug addition, gambling and some trivial matters. Different weapons have been used for the violence attack and some of them might cause serious injuries, such as knife, chopper, hammer, brick, metal rod, gas bottle, and cooking pot. There were 10% of women needed hospitalization but half of them discharged against medical advice. Conclusions: The study findings inform clinicians about the linkage between head-neck-face injuries and risks in abused women. The invisible head-neck-face injury related cognitive and behavioural problems, which might lead to re-victimization would also be discussed.