Domestic violence increased in the great recession
Study suggests preparing for similar issues in COVID-19

Date:
July 13, 2020
Source:
University of California - Davis
Summary:
Researchers found that physical abuse in adults increased
substantially, with Black and Native American people being
disproportionately affected.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Emergency room visits for domestic violence incidents in California more
than tripled during the Great Recession compared to the years before,
signaling a need to prepare for similar and more prolonged effects during
the COVID-19 financial crisis, suggest University of California, Davis, researchers.


========================================================================== Conducting one of the first studies to date examining the impact of a
modern recession on hospital and emergency room visits, researchers found
that physical abuse in adults increased substantially between the time
periods, with Black and Native American people being disproportionately affected. Violence against children did not show a marked increase. The
results were published in Preventive Medicine in June.

"The results from our study shine a spotlight on the importance of
domestic- violence-related screening, prevention and response during the
next several months of the COVID-19 financial effects," said the study's primary author, Alvaro Medel-Herrero, project scientist for the UC Davis
Center for Health and the Environment. "Notably, domestic violence is
grossly under-reported, and cases that end up in the emergency room or
result in a hospital stay are only the most egregious examples. This
tells us there may be an even larger problem than the numbers can show."
The study's co-authors included Suzette Smiley-Jewel, of the UC Davis
School of Veterinary Medicine; Martha Shumway, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco; Amy Bonomi, Michigan State
University; and Dennis Reidy, School of Public Health, Georgia State University.

Study looked at 53,000 domestic violence episodes The study's authors
looked at more than 53,000 domestic-violence-related episodes, composed
of both intimate partner violence as well as violence against elders and children, between 2000 and 2015. The numbers were drawn from California's Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, or OSHPD, and
then broken down between the years during, before and after the Great Recession. While the Great Recession officially lasted less than two
years, from December 2007 to June 2009, during which the gross domestic
product contracted, the economic crisis produced long-lasting consequences
for individuals as well as society as a whole, researchers said.



========================================================================== "Proactive outreach is especially needed for minoritized people, who
may be especially isolated, experiencing disconnections from services,
and facing extreme financial stress," said one of the co-authors, Bonomi,
of Michigan State University.

Blacks more than three times more likely to be victims Time series for the study were divided into pre-recession (January 2000- November 2007) and recession/post-recession (December 2007-September 2015) periods. Blacks
were more than three times more likely to suffer domestic violence
during the recessionary period when compared with other segments of the California population, according to the data. Statistics showed that
there were 3.58 emergency room visits per 100,000 population compared to
10.42 emergency visits per 100,000 people for Blacks. Hospitalization
rates remained relatively similar from the pre-recession as compared
to the recession/post- recession period except for Native Americans,
which nearly doubled.

Emergency visits vastly exceeded hospitalizations during the 2007-2015
time period.

Additionally, the number of California police calls for weapon-involved domestic violence episodes steadily increased from 2008 (65,219) to 2014 (75,102).



========================================================================== Costs associated with domestic violence For the period analyzed
(2000-2015), the estimated total charge for all analyzed domestic violence hospitalizations was more than $1 billion (data was not available for
emergency department costs).

Length of hospital stays slightly increased during the
recession/post-recession period as compared to the pre-recession period,
yet the inflation-adjusted charge per hospitalization dramatically
increased over time, according to the study.

Domestic violence rate does not correspond with other hospital visits It
is important to note that the described increase in domestic-violence-
related hospitalizations during the recession does not correspond to
a general trend in health care in California. For example, California
cancer hospital rates dropped during the Great Recession, according to
OSHPD data. However, an increasing demand for emergency care during the recession and post-recession period has been reported and may reflect limitations in accessing care in other parts of the health care system, researchers said.

The authors' research will continue.

The research was supported by a UC Davis Feminist Research Institute
seed grant.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
University_of_California_-_Davis. Original written by Karen
Nikos-Rose. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Alvaro Medel-Herrero, Martha Shumway, Suzette Smiley-Jewell,
Amy Bonomi,
Dennis Reidy. The impact of the Great Recession on California
domestic violence events, and related hospitalizations and
emergency service visits. Preventive Medicine, 2020; 139: 106186
DOI: 10.1016/ j.ypmed.2020.106186 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200713165609.htm

--- up 24 weeks, 6 days, 2 hours, 34 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1337:3/111)