Violence against women is a health problem of epidemic proportions, the World Health Organisation said yesterday.
A new analysis suggests that one in three women can be afflicted by physical or sexual violence globally.
Women suffer from pregnancy-related complications, broken bones, mental health problems, including alcohol dependence, and impaired social function, an analysis found.
They also suffer from unwanted pregnancy and abortion and infection as a result of abuse, researchers found.
The study, also reported in The Lancet, showed that more than a third of women who are murdered are victims of their partners. Just 6% of murders of men are by partners.
It found the highest rates of these murders in south-east Asia but also in high income countries and the Americas, where they are responsible for 40% of murders of women. It says that just 14% of murders of women in the Eastern Mediterranean can be attributed to partners.
WHO director general Dr Margaret Chan said: “These findings send a powerful message that violence against women is a global health problem of epidemic proportions.
"We also see that the world’s health systems can and must do more for women who experience violence.”
Researcher Dr Heidi Stöckl, from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK, said: "Our results underscore that women are disproportionately vulnerable to violence and murder by an intimate partner, and their needs have been neglected for far too long.
"Such homicides are often the ultimate outcome of a failed societal, health, and criminal justice response to intimate partner violence."
The Lancet 20 June 2013
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