Massachusetts researchers say woman who smoke or drink too much are more likely to have been abused by an intimate partner than other women.
A Harvard Medical School team found women who smoke or have a drinking problem have nearly a one-third likelihood of having been abused by an intimate partner during the previous 12 months.
That percentage jumps to a 54 percent likelihood of abuse in the course of her lifetime.
The team used a written survey administered to 2,386 female medical patients in the Boston area. The probabilities of 12-month and lifetime abuse by an intimate partner were estimated based on the women's reports of their smoking and drinking behaviors.
Women who neither smoked nor drank in the study still had a 10 percent likelihood of abuse during the preceding year and a nearly 40 percent chance of lifetime abuse.
The study is summarized in Monday's edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine,
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
