Types and severity of partner violence against women living in the community in Cali, Colombia

Identifying the incidence and severity of types of intimate partner violence against women exposed to this in their communities and the pertinent socio-demographic characteristics. This was a cross-sectional descriptive study of 150 women suffering intimate partner violence. The Severity of Violence Against Women Scale was used to explore demographic variables, e.g. age, sex, socioeconomic status, educational level, marital status and occupation. Mean age was 37 years, 74 % were mestizos, 68 % were living in socioeconomic groups 2 and 3, 43 % were living with a permanent partner and 31 % had experienced violence by other people than their intimate partner. There was high exposure (96.3 %) to more than one type of violence; 88% had suffered physical and 53 % sexual threats. All types were correlated with each other (r ranged from 0.42 to 0.84 (p