Author(s)

Rose Eva Constantino¹, Alona D. Angosta², Andrew Thomas Reyes², Brayden Kameg¹, Linden Wu¹, Jordan Cobb¹, Vivian Hui¹, Daisy Palompon³, Reema Safadi⁴, Mayada Daibes⁵, Elizabeth Schlenk¹

¹Department of Health and Community Systems, School of Nursing, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA.
²School of Nursing, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, USA.
³School of Nursing, Cebu Normal University, Cebu City, Philippines.
⁴School of Nursing, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.
⁵Philadelphia University, Amman, Jordan.

This paper examines the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) experience in women and cardiovascular disease (CVD), and determines if there is a preponderance of literature evidence. Research is reviewed dealing with the different biopsychosocial factors affecting the relationship between IPV and CVD. As a result of our review, we propose a framework on the biopsychosocial pathway of IPV as a risk factor of CVD of women. Our proposed framework portrays how IPV experiences contribute to long-term biopsychosocial changes that increase the risk of CVD among female victims of IPV. These biopsychosocial changes include chronic inflammation and hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis dysfunction, metabolic or endocrine dysfunction, and mood symptomatology. In our framework, we also included strategies to prevent risks in developing CVD through the three levels of prevention. Because gender disparities exist when examining CVD risk and development, the correlation between IPV and CVD risk in women must be explored. This framework may provide a theoretical foundation for further research on the relationship between IPV and CVD among women.

Intimate Partner Violence, Cardiovascular Disease, Women

Constantino, R. , Angosta, A. , Reyes, A. , Kameg, B. , Wu, L. , Cobb, J. , Hui, V. , Palompon, D. , Safadi, R. , Daibes, M. and Schlenk, E. (2019) Is Intimate Partner Violence a Risk Factor for Cardiovascular Disease in Women? A Review of the Preponderance of the Evidence. Health, 11, 841-854. doi: 10.4236/health.2019.116067.