Quality of life and depression in women abused by their partners

Objective To evaluate quality of life and depression among women who suffer domestic violence and to describe the socioeconomic profile of women who were abused by their partners and aspects of these abuses. Methods The study sample comprised 100 women who were abused by their partners and filed a complaint at the Police Office for Women of the state of Ceara, Brazil. Three questionnaires were applied: one for collecting demographic and violence data; the second one (GHQ-28) one to evaluate general quality of life; and the third one (Beck) to quantify depression. Results Abused women are young, married, Catholic, have children, low schooling and low family income. Alcohol use and jealousy were the main reported factors leading to partner's abuse. Of all, 84% of women suffered physical attacks. It was observed that 72% had depression symptoms; 78% had anxiety symptoms and insomnia; 39% had already thought of killing themselves, and 24% started taking anxiety medicalions after been abused Conclusions Data analysis suggests that domestic violence is associated with a negative perception by women of their mental heath.