Health Impact of Domestic Violence: Mexico City (From Too Close to Home: Domestic Violence in the Americas, P 81-101, 1999, Andrew R. Morrison and Maria L. Biehl, eds. -- See NCJ-182184)

• NCJ Number: 182188
• Author(s): Rafael L. Ascencio
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 21 pages
• Sale Source: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter examines the health impact of domestic violence in Mexico City.

Abstract

There have been few evaluations of the impact of violence on health and most of those have relied on simple indicators such as death reports, crime reports, hospital records and interviews with victims. Unfortunately, almost all of those evaluations or recording systems looked only at permanent injuries or deaths associated with violence and therefore offer an incomplete view of the health problems associated with violence. Recently some indicators have been developed to measure both the fatal and nonfatal effects of diseases and injury. This study used the disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) indicator, which quantifies healthy years of life lost due to premature mortality or disability. The burden associated with violence against women is significant; one in 18 disability-adjusted life years lost by women in Mexico City stemmed from such violence. Marital violence was the leading cause of lost DALYs. Girls under age five also showed significant DALYs lost. Violence against women ranked third in health needs priorities of all women in Mexico City and first for females 5 to 44 years of age. Figures, tables, notes, references