TUESDAY, Jan. 30 (HealthDay News) -- Women with a history of intimate partner violence have much higher health care costs and use health services more often than women with no history of abuse, a new study shows.

Even years after the abuse has stopped, these women still use the health system much more and incur higher costs, according to Group Health, a Seattle-based health plan, and researchers at the University of Washington.

The study is published in the February issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Researchers analyzed data and survey results from 3,333 women, ages 18 to 64. Of those women, 1,546 reported having experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) in their lifetime. For this study, IPV was defined as both physical abuse (slapping, hitting, kicking, or forced sex) and nonphysical abuse (threats, controlling behavior, chronic disparaging remarks).

The study found that:

• Women with a history of IPV had 19 percent higher annual ($439 a year) total health care costs than women with no history of IPV.
• Compared to other women, those who reported IPV had 17 percent more primary care visits, 14 percent more specialist visits, and 27 percent more prescription refills. Women who reported current or past IPV were also more likely to use services in the areas of mental health, substance abuse, hospital outpatient care, emergency department care, and acute inpatient care.
• Health care use was still 20 percent higher five years after women's abuse stopped, compared to women with no history of IPV.
• Excess costs to the health plan due to IPV are approximately $19.3 million per year for every 100,000 women enrollees ages 18 to 64. That estimate is based on previous research that estimated a 44 percent rate of IPV among the women.

"These results show the enormous cost of intimate partner violence and can justify investing in intervention programs to reduce its health effects and prevent its recurrence. It would also justify the costs of long-term programs to prevent this problem from happening in the first place," study lead author Dr. Frederick P. Rivara, an affiliate investigator at the Group Health Center for Health Studies and a researcher at the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center in Seattle, said in a prepared statement.

Rivara is also a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington.

More information

The American College of Emergency Physicians has more about domestic violence.