Proceedings of The 6th Global Conference on Women’s Studies
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Intimate partner violence and health inequalities between indigenous Palestinian and Jewish women in Israel
Nihaya Daoud, Samira Alfayumi-Zeadna, Neveen Ali-Saleh, Beatris Agronsky
ABSTRACT:
Palestinian women citizens in Israel are an indigenous minoritized group that suffers poorer health compared to their Jewish counterparts. Intimate partner violence (IPV), a major factor for adverse health among women globally, can contribute to these health inequalities. However, no studies yet examined IPV contribution to explaining ethno-racial health inequalities. We used data from a stratified sample of 1401 perinatal-aged women (Jewish N=965, Palestinian N=436) and calculated crude and adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for ethnonational (Palestinian vs. Jewish) inequalities for 10 health conditions: postpartum depression (EPDS≥10), depressive symptoms (CES>0.9), anxiety (STAI≥14), abortion, miscarriage, preterm birth, unplanned pregnancy, poor self-rated health (SRH), chronic illness, and multimorbidity (sum score of the above health conditions). We then considered IPV while controlling for socioeconomic and demographic factors and examined the effect of IPV on health inequalities by calculating the % of change (Δ) from adjusted and unadjusted odds ratios. Findings showed that, compared to Jewish women, Palestinian women had poorer health for most of the health conditions. After considering IPV, the strength (odds ratios) of these health inequalities were attenuated by 4.5%–16.6% for physical conditions, 21.3%–28.4% for mental conditions, and 25.7% for multimorbidity, indicating the contribution of IPV to explaining these health inequalities. Understanding how IPV contributes to health inequalities in the specific sociopolitical context of Palestinians in Israel, prolonged discriminatory policies, low women’s status, lack of access to appropriate healthcare services, and low socioeconomic status, is crucial for tackling these health inequalities and improving Palestinian women’s health.
keywords: Minority women’s health, health inequalities, intimate partner violence, Palestinian and Jewish women, indigenous women