Adverse Health Correlates of Intimate Partner Violence against Older Women: Mining Electronic Health Records

TL;DR

This study analyzes electronic health records to identify health conditions associated with intimate partner violence in older women, revealing specific mental, physical, and substance-related health markers that can aid in screening and understanding IPV effects.

Contribution

It is the first to mine EHR data specifically for older women to uncover health correlates of IPV, highlighting unique markers compared to younger women.

Findings

Substance abuse and toxicities are common co-morbidities with IPV in older women.

Older women with IPV show higher rates of mental health, musculoskeletal, and organ system disorders.

Identified potential markers for IPV screening in older women.

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is often studied as a problem that predominantly affects younger women. However, studies show that older women are also frequently victims of abuse even though the physical effects of abuse are harder to detect. In this study, we mined the electronic health records (EHR) available through IBM Explorys to identify health correlates of IPV that are specific to older women. Our analyses suggested that diagnostic terms that are co-morbid with IPV in older women are dominated by substance abuse and associated toxicities. When we considered differential co-morbidity, i.e., terms that are significantly more associated with IPV in older women compared to younger women, we identified terms spanning mental health issues, musculoskeletal issues, neoplasms, and disorders of various organ systems including skin, ears, nose and throat. Our findings provide pointers for further investigation in understanding the health effects of IPV among older women, as well as potential markers that can be used for screening IPV.