Expected years lived with intimate partner violence: a new approach for public health

BACKGROUND: Intimate Partner Violence against women (IPV) is a major public health problem. However, mainstream indicators used in public health are not designed to fully capture the pervasive and enduring impact of IPV. OBJECTIVE: We propose a new indicator that considers the burden of IPV in women during their middle life years, estimating the number of years that women are expected to live under IPV, and provide estimates for 151 countries. METHODS: Prevalence rates of physical and sexual IPV for a given year are taken from the Global Database on the Prevalence of Violence Against Women. Annual period life tables are constructed using data from the World Population Prospects. We use Sullivan’s method to estimate partial life expectancy between the ages of 15 and 49 lived suffering from physical and sexual IPV in each country. The final indicator measures the number of years 15 to 49-year-old women are expected to live with IPV (YLIPV) in a given year. RESULTS: Based on data from surveys representative of 92.0% of the global female population aged between 15 to 49, we find that ever-partnered women aged between 15 to 49 are expected to live 4.1 years (Low Bound: 2.3; Upper Bound: 7.1) suffering from violence during this age range. By regions, women are expected to suffer from IPV during 6.0 years (3.7–9.2) in Africa; 4.3 years (2.4–7.8) in Asia; 3.4 years (2.1–5.6) in Oceania; 2.6 years (1.5–4.2) in the Americas; and 1.7 years (0.9–3.1) in Europe. CONCLUSIONS: YLIPV is a useful indicator to display the burden of IPV. Similarly to the mainstream public health indicators rationale, YLIPV accounts for the time women are exposed to IPV during their lifespan and it is standardized by age exposure.