A new Australian study has found that women who experience intimate partner violence (IPV) are significantly more likely to suffer from multiple chronic health conditions earlier in life.
Drawing on data from over 16,000 women as part of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH), the research, published in Social Science & Medicine, found that women with a history of IPV were diagnosed with two or more chronic conditions, known as “multimorbidity,” nearly a decade earlier than women without such experiences.
The average age of onset for those who had experienced IPV was 70 years, compared to 78.8 years for others.
At ages 72 to 77, nearly 60% of women with an IPV history had developed multimorbidity, compared to just over 40% of those without such a history.
IPV ranked among the top five predictors for multimorbidity. Other key predictors were childhood sexual abuse, BMI, smoking and hypertension.
Sally Stevenson, Executive Director of the Illawarra Women’s Health Centre and its project, the Illawarra Women’s Trauma Recovery Centre, the findings reinforce the need for the service.
“We know trauma shows up not just as emotional and psychological pain, but in the body too,” Ms Stevenson said.
“This research validates what women have been telling us for years and backs up the need for a model of care that recognises the need for care goes beyond crisis intervention to address the impact of domestic, family and sexual violence and abuse.”
This new research adds momentum to calls for trauma-informed care to be embedded into general practice, chronic disease management, and hospital settings across the country. It also raises the stakes for investing in long-term, holistic recovery services, especially for older women, whose experiences of violence may have occurred decades earlier but whose health continues to be shaped by it.
“The data have shown that IPV is one of the top five factors that increases the risk of multimorbidity and accelerates its onset,” said Professor Gita Mishra, senior author of the study and Director of the Australian Women and Girls’ Health Research Centre.
“We hope these findings can help advocate for safer spaces for women experiencing IPV and to develop tools for healthcare practitioners to notice in patients to reduce the long‑term health impacts.”
The Illawarra Women’s Trauma Recovery Centre, opened in 2024 as the first of its kind in Australia, was co-designed with women who have lived experience of domestic, family, and sexual violence. The Centre provides a wraparound model of care, integrating legal, financial, psychological, and physical health services under one roof.
“For too long, women’s pain has been dismissed or misunderstood,” Stevenson said.
“The evidence is clear. Violence against women shortens lives. If we want to reduce the burden of chronic illness in our communities, we must take violence seriously, and we must support recovery.”
For further information or support, contact the Illawarra Women’s Trauma Recovery Centre.