Asthma, alcohol abuse, bulimia nervosa: these are just some of the consequences on the health of victims of physical and sexual violence against women (IPV, intimate partner violence) and minor (SVAC, sexual violence against children) identified in a new study published in The Lancet.
The numbers, revised upwards compared to previous estimates, are impressive: worldwide, over a billion people over the age of 15 have been victims of SVAC, and 608 million women in the same age group have suffered IPV.
A strong impact on health. The analysis – part of the Global Burden of Disease, an international project that measures the impact of diseases, injuries and risk factors on global health – traced the consequences of violence against women and children in 204 countries and territories, offering the most comprehensive map ever created on the health burden of this abuse.
It emerged that SVAC would be linked to the onset of 14 pathologies – including alcohol and drug abuse, asthma and bulimia nervosa – while IPV would be associated with eight negative health consequences – including abortion, depression and self-harm. “The impact is enormous and has been systematically ignored in global health priorities,” says Luisa Sorio Flor, coordinator of the study.
Lost 50 million years of health. It is estimated that victims of this violence have lost over 50 million years of healthy life globally disability-adjusted life yearsDALY, an index that indicates the years of life lost due to premature death or disability): 32 million due to violence against children and 18.5 million due to intimate partner violence.
Almost half a million deaths. In 2023, sexual violence against minors was linked to 290,000 deaths worldwide, mainly due to suicide, HIV/AIDS and type 2 diabetes. Domestic violence against women instead caused 145,000 deaths, largely due to homicides, suicides and HIV/AIDS: among these, almost 30,000 women were killed by their partners in a single year.
For women aged 15 to 49, IPV and SVAC are the fourth and fifth leading causes of loss of healthy life years globally, respectively. “Most other diseases that affect a billion people and are among the top five health threats dominate the global health agenda,” says one of the authors Emmanuela Gakidou, who recalls: “Violence is not simply a social problem that occasionally affects health: it is a major cause of death and disability and requires broad and coordinated public health action.”
