Research

Title

Author(s)

Intimate partner violence and chronic pain among
Chinese women

Chan, Chee-hon.; 陳之翰.

Citation

Issue Date

URL

Rights

2010

http://hdl.handle.net/10722/133209

The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works.

Intimate partner violence and chronic pain among Chinese women

By

Chee Hon CHAN

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong

November 2010

Abstract of thesis entitled
Intimate partner violence and chronic pain among Chinese women
Submitted by
Chee Hon CHAN for the degree of Master of Philosophy at The University of Hong Kong in November 2010

Introduction: Intimate partner violence is a serious public health problem and has a profound impact on women’s health. One of the health problems associated with intimate partner violence is chronic pain. Yet, little is known about the experience of and factors influencing chronic pain in women survivors of intimate partner violence (hereafter known as abused women). Aims: This study aimed (1) to compare the prevalence and the severity level of chronic pain between abused and non-abused women; (2) to identify the traumatic events influencing abused women’s chronic pain; (3) to investigate the mediating role of physical injury, post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, and depressive symptoms in the relationship between intimate partner violence and chronic pain; and (4) to evaluate the mechanism by which perceived social support influences the relationship between intimate partner violence and health outcomes, including physical injury, post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, depressive symptoms, and chronic pain. Methods: A cross-sectional, quantitative study was conducted. Chinese women aged 18 or above were recruited via advertisements in one community center and three domestic violence

References: Dahlberg, Zwi, & Lozano, 2002). Another WHO study on Women‟s Health and Domestic Violence found that between 15% and 71% of women had been physically and/or sexually assaulted by a male intimate partner at some point in their lives (Garcia-Moreno, Jansen, Ellsberg, Heise, & Watts, 2006) had a history of abuse by an intimate partner (Chan, 2005; Parish, Wang, Laumann, Pan, & Luo, 2004; Wang, Parish, Laumann, & Luo, 2009) more likely to be victimized by their male intimate partner, with a more serious negative impact on health (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000) Campbell, 2002; Plichta, 2004). Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression are the 1 services, hospital outpatient services, and emergency departments than women who have had no experience of IPV (Rivara, et al., 2007) An estimate of the direct medical cost relating to IPV in the United States (US) was found to be approximately seven billion US dollars per year (Brown, Finkelstein, & Mercy, 2008) study in the US found that more than 75% of abused women experienced chronic pain (Kramer, Lorenzon, & Mueller, 2004) IPV and chronic pain (Coker, Smith, Bethea, King, & McKeown, 2000; Hegarty, Gunn, Chondros, & Taft, 2008; Leithner, Assem-Hilger, Naderer, Umek, & Springer-Kremser, 2009). problems) (Tang, 2007). However, since no studies have examined chronic pain among Chinese abused women, the magnitude of this problem is unclear