Lifetime health costs of intimate partner violence: A prospective longitudinal cohort study with linked data for out-of-hospital and pharmaceutical costs

The health effects of intimate partner violence (IPV) can be long term, developing years after the IPV began and persisting after it has ceased. We aim to quantify the excess lifetime out-of-hospital and pharmaceutical health costs of women who experience IPV in Australia by applying a novel combination of econometric and actuarial techniques to a large and unique dataset. We find that women with a history of IPV have AUD48,413 (2020) higher lifetime health costs per person than women who do not experience IPV. This suggests that the adverse health impact of IPV leads to increased health costs over one's lifetime regardless of whether the initial IPV experience is early or later in life, and policies reducing the incidence of IPV will have long-term impacts on the healthcare system. •Women who experience IPV have AUD48,413 higher lifetime health costs per person.•Econometric methods were robust to potential misspecification and endogeneity.•IPV increases health costs over the lifetime, even when experienced early in life.•Policies reducing IPV will have long-term impacts on the healthcare system.•Joint econometric and actuarial methods provide better understanding of IPV costs.