Risk of perpetrating intimate partner violence amongst men exposed to torture in conflict-affected Timor-Leste (original) (raw)

A high-risk group of pregnant women with elevated levels of conflict-related trauma, intimate partner violence, symptoms of depression and other forms of mental distress in post-conflict Timor-Leste

Translational psychiatry, 2016

Women in post-conflict, low-income, post-conflict (LI-PC) countries are at risk of exposure to the traumatic events (TEs) of war and intimate partner violence (IPV), forms of stress that are known to lead to depression and other adverse mental health outcomes. We aimed to assess an index of exposure to these two forms of trauma to identify pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in conflict-affected Timor-Leste at high risk of depression and other forms of stress. A large, cross-sectional study of women in the second trimester of pregnancy was conducted in the four main government antenatal clinics in Dili district of Timor-Leste, between May 2014, and January 2015. The sample consisted of 1672 consecutive women, 3 to 6 months pregnant, with a response rate of 96%. We applied the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, the Kessler-10 psychological distress scale and the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire. IPV was assessed by the World Health Organisation measure. Composite categories of ...