• Babina Gosangi, Hyesun Park, Richard Thomas, Rahul Gujrathi, Camden P Bay, Ali S Raja, Steven E Seltzer, Marta Chadwick Balcom, Meghan L McDonald, Dennis P Orgill, Mitchel B Harris, Giles W Boland, Kathryn Rexrode, and Bharti Khurana.
• From the Department of Radiology (B.G., H.P., R.T., R.G., C.P.B., S.E.S., G.W.B., B.K.), Violence Intervention and Prevention Programs, Center for Community Health and Health Equity (M.C.B.), Department of Surgery (M.L.M., D.P.O.), and Division of Women's Health (K.R.), Brigham and Women's Hospital, 75 Francis St, Boston, MA 02115; and Departments of Emergency Medicine (A.S.R.) and Orthopedic Surgery (M.B.H.), Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Mass.
• Radiology. 2021 Jan 1; 298 (1): E38-E45.

AbstractBackground Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a global social and public health problem, but published literature regarding the exacerbation of physical IPV during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is lacking. Purpose To assess the incidence, patterns, and severity of injuries in IPV victims during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 compared with the prior 3 years. Materials and Methods The demographics, clinical presentation, injuries, and radiologic findings of patients reporting physical abuse arising from IPV during the statewide COVID-19 pandemic between March 11 and May 3, 2020, were compared with data from the same period for the past 3 years. Pearson χ2 and Fisher exact tests were used for analysis. Results A total of 26 victims of physical IPV from 2020 (mean age, 37 years ± 13 [standard deviation]; 25 women) were evaluated and compared with 42 victims of physical IPV (mean age, 41 years ± 15; 40 women) from 2017 to 2019. Although the overall number of patients who reported IPV decreased during the pandemic, the incidence of physical IPV was 1.8 times greater (95% CI: 1.1, 3.0; P = .01). The total number of deep injuries was 28 during 2020 versus 16 from 2017 to 2019; the number of deep injuries per victim was 1.1 during 2020 compared with 0.4 from 2017 to 2019 (P < .001). The incidence of high-risk abuse defined by mechanism was two times greater in 2020 (95% CI: 1.2, 4.7; P = .01). Patients who experienced IPV during the COVID-19 pandemic were more likely to be White; 17 (65%) victims in 2020 were White compared with 11 (26%) in the prior years (P = .007). Conclusion There was a higher incidence and severity of physical intimate partner violence (IPV) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic compared with the prior 3 years. These results suggest that victims of IPV delayed reaching out to health care services until the late stages of the abuse cycle during the COVID-19 pandemic. © RSNA, 2020.

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