Domestic violence survivors commonly suffer repeated blows to the head and strangulation, trauma that has lasting effects that should be widely recognized by advocates, health care providers, law enforcement and others who are in a position to help, according to the authors of a new study.
In the first community-based study of its kind, researchers from The Ohio State University and the Ohio Domestic Violence Network found that 81 percent of women who have been abused at the hands of their partners and seek help have suffered a head injury and 83 percent have been strangled.
The research suggests that brain injury caused by blows to the head and by oxygen deprivation are likely ongoing health issues for many domestic violence survivors. Because of poor recognition of these lasting harms, some interactions between advocates and women suffering from the effects of these unidentified injuries were likely misguided, said the authors of the study, which appears in the Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma.
«One in three women in the United States has experienced intimate partner violence. What we found leads us to believe that many people are walking around with undiagnosed brain injury, and we have to address that,» said lead researcher Julianna Nemeth, an assistant professor of health behavior and health promotion at Ohio State.
The study included 49 survivors from Ohio and 62 staff and administrators from five agencies in the state.
Previous research has acknowledged brain injury as a product of domestic violence. But this is the first study to gather this kind of detailed information from the field. It’s also the first to establish that many survivors have likely experienced repeated head injury and oxygen deprivation — a combination that could contribute to more-severe problems including memory loss, difficulty understanding, loss of motivation, nightmares, anxiety and trouble with vision and hearing, Nemeth said.
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Materials provided by Ohio State University. Original written by Misti Crane. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.