EXTERNALLY FUNDED RESEARCH PROJECTS
Lifetime health systems costs of women who experience intimate partner violence
Background
Our project quantifies the lifetime healthcare costs of women who experience domestic violence. The healthcare costs considered refer to government-funded expenditure through Medicare and relate to both in-patient hospital and out-of-hospital care (such as general practitioner visits). We will also consider costs through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. The results will be used to inform health policy and domestic violence services to ultimately better support affected women.
Aim
The aim of the project is to quantify the lifetime health system costs of women who experience domestic violence. We quantify these costs for out-of-hospital, pharmaceutical and hospital sectors.
Methods
A microsimulation model is used to predict future costs for each woman eligible for the study in the 1973–78 cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH). Cost data is derived for individual women through linkage to over 20 years of administrative health records. Statistical learning techniques are used to model cost and future life transitions are derived by domestic violence status using older cohorts of the ALSWH.