Intimate partner violence after cancer diagnosis: an SOS call

• Published in: Supportive care in cancer 2023-02, Vol.31 (2), p.103-103, Article 103
• Main Authors: Mejri, Nesrine, Lajnef, Ines, Berrazega, Yosra, Rachdi, Haifa, Bohli, Mariem, Kochbati, Lotfi, Hamouda, Boussen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abused women; Cancer; Crimes against; Cross-Sectional Studies; Diagnosis; Domestic violence; Educational attainment; Emotional abuse; Family violence; Female; Gender-based violence; Health aspects; Health status; Humans; Intimate partner violence; Intimate Partner Violence - psychology; Male; Medical diagnosis; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Neoplasms - epidemiology; Nursing; Nursing Research; Oncology; Pain Medicine; Patient education; Patients; Prevalence; Questionnaires; Racism; Rehabilitation Medicine; Risk Factors; Sexual Partners - psychology; Surveys; Surveys and Questionnaires; Torture; Violence against women; Womens health
• ISSN: 0941-4355; 1433-7339
• DOI: 10.1007/s00520-022-07571-9

Purpose The aim of the present study was to measure the frequency and types of IPV among patients with cancer and evaluate risk factors. Methods The study was a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study, conducted between January and April 2022, including 141 patients treated with cancer regardless of gender, site, or stage. We developed the study questionnaire by adapting items from the “WHO multi-country questionnaire on violence against women” and “The Women’s Experiences with Battering Scale.” Odds ratio (OR) and spearman tests were performed to assess the impact of several factors associated with the reported IPV. Results Median age was 50 years old, 38.3% were male cancer patients. IPV prevalence was 24.8%, we observed 5 cases of torture (3%). The most common forms of violence were placing severe restriction on certain types of food and clothing in 21%, psychological violence in 20%, exposing intimate information about the patient health status to others in 17%, ignoration in 13.5%, putting restrictions on visiting friends or families in 9.2%, verbal assault in 9.2%, physical violence in 7.9%, and 7.1% racist conducts. Financial violence was rare in 4.3%. There was no difference in the incidence of IPV between man and women. We observed a significant correlation between IPV prevalence and disease stage (19.1% M0 vs 34.6% M1, p =0.04, OR=2.2 [1–4.8]), patient’s educational level (48.5% vs 17.6%, p =0.01, OR= 4.4 [1.8–10.2]), and being under ongoing cancer therapy (11.4% vs 30.9%, p =0.013, OR=3.4 [1.2–9.7]) Conclusion Patients were shown to be victims of several forms of IPV regardless of gender.