Citation

Urquia ML, O'Campo PJ, Ray JG. Am. J. Public Health 2013; 103(2): e8-e15.

Affiliation

Marcelo L. Urquia and Patricia J. O'Campo are with the Centre for Research on Inner City Health, The Keenan Research Centre in the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, and Joel G. Ray is with the Department of Medicine, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, American Public Health Association)

DOI

10.2105/AJPH.2012.301116

PMID

23237180

Abstract

Objectives. We examined the joint associations of marital status and duration of cohabitation on self-reported intimate partner violence, substance use, and postpartum depression among childbearing women. Methods. We analyzed data from the 2006-2007 Canadian Maternity Experiences Survey, a cross-sectional nationwide sample of 6421 childbearing women. Cohabiting women were married or nonmarried women living with a partner; noncohabiters were single, divorced, or separated women. We further categorized cohabiters by their duration of cohabitation (≤ 2, 3-5, or > 5 years). We used logistic regression to generate adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Results. About 92% of women were cohabiters. Compared with married women living with a husband more than 5 years, unmarried women cohabiting for 2 years or less were at higher odds of intimate partner violence (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 4.64; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.85, 7.56), substance use (AOR = 5.36; 95% CI = 3.06, 9.39), and postpartum depression (AOR = 1.87; 95% CI = 1.25, 2.80); these risk estimates declined with duration of cohabitation. Conclusions. Research on maternal and child health would benefit from distinguishing between married and unmarried cohabiting women, and their duration of cohabitation. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print December 13, 2012: e1-e8. doi:10. 2105/AJPH.2012.301116).

Language: en