Associations of Emotional, Physical, or Sexual Intimate Partner Violence and Depression Symptoms Among South African Women in a Prospective Cohort Study.

Violence against women remains a significant public health problem globally. The majority of longitudinal studies documenting the negative impact of intimate partner violence (IPV) on the mental health of women come from high-income countries. The aim of this study was to investigate the longitudinal association between emotional, physical, or sexual IPV and depression symptoms among South African women in a prospective cohort study. Participants were 981 South African women enrolled in the Drakenstein Child Health Study-a cohort study investigating the early life determinants of child health. Interview data from four time-points (antenatal care visit, 6 months, 12 months, and 18 months postpartum) were included. The primary independent variable was self-reported emotional, physical, and sexual IPV in the past 12 months. Depressive symptoms were assessed at each time-point with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS); a cutoff score of ⩾13 was used to define significant depression symptoms. We used pooled-multivariable logistic regression models to determine associations between the three different forms of IPV and significant depression symptoms while adjusting for time-fixed and time-updated covariates. The mean age of the sample at antenatal care visit was 27 years (standard deviation = 6.0). In the adjusted model including all forms of IPV and adjusting for sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, substance use, and childhood trauma, emotional (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] =1.55, 95% confidence interval (CI): [1.02, 2.34];