- A British Columbia study examined the impact of intimate partner violence on the health of women with HIV
- Nearly 60% of women in the study said they had experienced intimate partner violence
- Women were more likely to die of chronic health conditions if they experienced this violence
The widespread availability of potent HIV treatment (ART) has made HIV a chronic condition in Canada and other high-income countries. The power of ART is so immense that many ART users will have near-normal life expectancy.
Despite the tremendous benefit of ART, not everyone who uses it experiences prolonged survival, likely due to socio-economic and structural issues.
A team of researchers at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS has been studying the impact of intimate partner violence (IPV) on the survival of women living with HIV. The researchers found that HIV-positive women who experience severe IPV were twice as likely to subsequently die compared to HIV-positive women who did not experience severe IPV. The researchers proposed interventions to help prevent IPV and to help survivors.
Study details
As part of a study on health services in B.C. called LISA, researchers recruited 1,000 HIV-positive people. There were 264 women, including nine trans gender women. A total of 260 women chose to respond to survey questions about IPV and their data was used in the study. The survey was done at the point of enrollment. Key characteristics included the following:
- age – 41 years
- major ethno-racial groups: White – 49%; Indigenous – 45%
- completed high school – 53%
- currently injecting street drugs – 23%
- previous imprisonment – 55%