The missed pandemic: Intimate partner violence in female mental-health-care-users during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and interpersonal violence (IPV) in mentally ill women are often neglected and need to be reviewed in light of the suggested increase in IPV during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We investigated the prevalence of ACEs and IPV in women living with severe mental illness (SMI) attending an outpatient psychiatry service at a public hospital in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also described the association of ACEs with later IPV.

A written survey comprising socio-demographic and clinical questionnaire, WHO Adverse Childhood Experiences International Questionnaire (ACE-IQ) for ACEs and the Women abuse screening tool (WAST) for IPV, was completed by the 154 women with SMI.

141 (91.6%) participants scored positive for ACEs and 104 (67.5%) had experienced three or more ACEs. The most prevalent forms of ACEs were emotional neglect 72 (46.8%), one or no parents, parental separation, or divorce 104 (67.5%), contact sexual abuse 67 (43.5%) and witnessing a household member treated violently 67 (43.5%). Sixty-one (46.6%) participants reported IPV with scores  13 (indicative of abuse). On logistic regression, experience of three or more ACEs was significantly associated with IPV in adulthood (aOR 3.3, 95% CI: 1.2-9.6).

The high prevalence of IPV and association of IPV with cumulative ACEs reflect firstly the hidden epidemic of domestic violence and secondly the vulnerability of those with ACEs to become victims of abuse later which is often  missed in the care of women with SMI.

KEYWORDS:

• adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)
• interpersonal violence (IPV)
• women with severe mental illness
• COVID-19 pandemic
• South Africa

Disclosure statement

The study was conducted according to acceptable research standards, including having obtained informed consent of study participants. The study received ethical approval from the Biomedical Research Ethics Committee of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (BREC/00001278/2020).

Additional information

Funding

The third author was supported by KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP) with a core award from the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) of the Department of Science and Technology (DST).