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December 18, 2007Health Needs Higher for Kids of Abused Moms |
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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: Children whose mothers have a history of abuse by intimate partners have higher health care needs than children whose mothers have no history of abuse, according to a study conducted at Group Health, a Seattle-based health plan. Scientists from Group Health Center for Health Studies, Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center (HIPRC), and Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute conducted the study, which appeared in the December 2007 issue of the journal Pediatrics. "Children are the other victims when intimate partner violence (IPV) occurs in the home," said lead author Frederick P. Rivara, MD, MPH. Rivara is a researcher with HIPRC and Children's. The study compared medical records and utilization data from 631 children of mothers with a history of IPV with those of 760 children whose mothers had not experienced IPV. The mothers---who participated in a randomly sampled telephone survey of Group Health female members aged 18 to 64---provided the information regarding their lifetime history with IPV. This current study is the largest ever to examine the link between mother's exposure to IPV and their children's health utilization and costs. "Intimate partner violence harms everyone in our society, and it must be viewed as not acceptable either for women or their children," he added. Health care utilization and health care costs were higher in most categories of care for children whose mother had a history of IPV, with significantly higher levels of mental health costs and services, primary care visits, primary care costs, and laboratory costs. Overall, the annual costs of health care were 11 percent higher than those for children of mothers without IPV.
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