Abstract
Violence against women is one of the most persistent, egregious gender equality gaps and an important risk factor for women’s ill health. It is widely recognized as a grave violation of women’s human rights and, increasingly, as a public health problem of ‘epidemic proportions’. Globally, one in three women have experienced physical and /or sexual violence by an intimate partner or non- partner in their lifetime (WHO-LSHTM-SAMRC, 2013). Violence has adverse consequences for women’s physical health, including sexual and reproductive health and mental health. Women who experience intimate partner violence are twice as likely to experience induced abortions, 1.5 times more likely to experience sexually transmitted infections or HIV, almost twice as like to have alcohol use disorders, twice as likely to experience depression, and 16 per cent more likely to have low birthweight babies compared to those who have not experienced such violence (WHO-LSHTM-SAMRC, 2013).
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© 2015 Avni Amin, Eszter Kismödi and Claudia García-Moreno
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Amin, A., Kismödi, E., García-Moreno, C. (2015). Addressing Violence against Women in Health Policies. In: Kuhlmann, E., Blank, R.H., Bourgeault, I.L., Wendt, C. (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook of Healthcare Policy and Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137384935_36
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137384935_36
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