Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a major health concern in Canada, with more than 20% of women experiencing physical, sexual, or emotional violence from a male partner. Indigenous Canadians, those in same-sex partnerships, and transgender people often experience IPV at much higher rates. IPV is associated with negative health outcomes such as anxiety, depression, sexually-transmitted infections, and suicide. Considering IPV is a social problem, it stands to reason that some of the risk of experiencing IPV stems from the characteristics of where a person lives. However, research into which aspects are associated with IPV and how best to mitigate them is still relatively new. Known as contextual effects, these factors consist of neighbourhood characteristics (i.e. community wealth, neighbourhood safety, access to healthcare, greenspace) and the social norms prevalent in each community (i.e. gender and cultural norms). We propose to use individual- and neighbourhood-level data from a 2011 survey of 2,412 Toronto residents to examine the aspects of a person's environment that are associated with IPV. By combining this data with respondents' Ontario Health Insurance Program number, we also follow respondents' health outcomes and expenditures from 2011-2018. This allows us to investigate which contextual effects are associated with patterns of reporting IPV to healthcare providers since 2011, as well as how IPV is associated with long-term health outcomes and costs in different environments. A novel analysis will be able to examine not just whether IPV is associated with health outcomes and increased costs, but the rate of the increase- something never done in the Canadian context. A better understanding of the contextual effects pertinent to IPV, as well as how these are associated with health outcomes and healthcare costs, can focus policies and interventions aimed at reducing the toll IPV places on individuals, neighbourhoods, and the healthcare system in Canada.