Violência entre parceiros íntimos e sua relação com compulsão alimentar e adoção de práticas não saudáveis de controle de peso

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) against women and disordered eating behaviors. The research was conducted in Duque de Caxias, a county in the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, using a cross-sectional design. The study sample consisted of 847 women aged 18 years and above, who were selected through complex sampling. The Revised Conflict Tactics Scales, second version (CTS2), was employed to assess IPV. Altered eating behaviors were evaluated and categorized based on a single question, with an affirmative response indicating their presence. Logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between exposure to IPV and the outcomes. Results showed that 60.9% of the participants experienced psychological violence, while 16.8% reported physical violence perpetrated by their intimate partners. Among the women, 19.2% had experienced at least one episode of binge eating, and 15.7% engaged in meal skipping or extreme calorie restriction for the purpose of weight control. The findings suggest that exposure to IPV is associated with an increased likelihood of self-induced vomiting in women, with a stronger association observed among those exposed to physical violence (OR: 1.75; 95% CI: 1.42-2.15) compared to psychological violence (OR: 1.36; 95% CI: 1.10-1.69). Exposure to physical IPV also heightened the probability of women eating truly little or skipping meals (OR: 1.28; 95% CI: 1.05-1.57). However, there was no significant evidence of a link between IPV and binge eating.