COVID-19 Transmission Among Women Exposed To Domestic Abuse Or Violence Revealed

A new study describes the risk of COVID-19 in women exposed to domestic violence and abuse survivors and highlights the important global public health needs of one of the most vulnerable groups in society.

Women with a general practitioner (GP) recorded exposure to domestic abuse or violence were at an increased risk of contracting COVID-19 during the first two waves of the pandemic in the UK, finds a new study led by the University of Birmingham.

A new study published in BMC Medicine, using pseudo-anonymized data from GP records, examined the risk of contracting COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic in 10,462 female domestic violence and abuse survivors aged over 16 compared to a control group of 41,467 women not exposed to domestic violence or abuse.

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‘Greater prevalence of COVID-19 risk factors among domestic abuse survivors is responsible for increasing their risk of contracting COVID-19.’

The findings showed that women with a recorded history of domestic violence and/or abuse were at an increased risk of suspected or confirmed COVID-19 compared to unexposed women.

This finding was more pronounced when examining only those women who had recorded domestic abuse in the one-year proceeding to the start of the pandemic.

First author Dr Joht Singh Chandan, NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Public Health at the University of Birmingham, explained: “Public health measures, such as restrictions on movement to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infection have increased rates of violence against women”.

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Consequently, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries have implemented policies to allow the free movement of domestic violence and abuse survivors in an attempt to minimize their exposure to abusive environments and to facilitate access to support.

Although these policies are well received, the risk of transmission and exposure to COVID-19 is more in this vulnerable group owing to the early evidence suggesting an upsurge in violent behavior of the perpetrators to control survivors.

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These include behaviors such as preventing access to health care services or treatment and threatening or enacting purposeful exposure to COVID-19 within the household.

This situation was further compounded by the fact that domestic violence and abuse survivors also have an increased prevalence of co-morbidities such as type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease, which can make them more at risk of COVID-19.

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This new study findings also demonstrate that despite accounting for known risk factors, individuals exposed to domestic violence or abuse were at an increased risk of suspected or confirmed COVID-19.

Based on these findings, researchers recommend that countries globally adopt the evidence-based recommendations to increase vaccination rates in vulnerable groups - focused on reducing physical barriers to vaccine access.

Apart from that, setting up pop-up clinics in the community to minimize the need to travel for abuse survivors, and creating clinics within domestic violence shelters should be considered.

Source-Medindia