Intimate partner violence and health care utilization:A randomized controlled trial.

Intimate partner violence imposes a substantial burden of suffering at both individual and societal levels. The research suggests that one tangible cost incurred by intimate partner violence takes the form of increased health care utilization: a function of both the emotional and physical consequences of abuse. At the same time, the dearth of evidence for treatment options has led some researchers and clinicians to debate the utility of screening for intimate partner violence. The current study evaluates the degree to which health care utilization differences obtain in an ethnically diverse, low socio-economic status sample. Using a randomized, controlled longitudinal design the effectiveness of a case management intervention is evaluated, relative to standard care, in terms of the changes in health-care utilization. While substantial heterogeneity is found among abused women at baseline, in terms of their health-care utilization, no effects due to treatment emerge. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)