VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN-A public health problem Prospective populationsbased cohortstudies on general and reproductive health consequence

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Project summary Violence against women has only recently been brought onto the agenda of public health. The first national study on violence against women in Norway showed that one in five women reported partner inflicted physical or sexual violence any time in their lives, 9 %, reported ever experiencing life threatening violence. Knowledge of the public health consequences of violence is limited. However, violence may substantially contribute to women's health burden. One of the main sources for publi c health research is the various epidemiological health surveys in Norway, which traditionally have not included information on violence. Subprojects related to violence have for the first time been accepted in two studies so far: The Oslo Health Study (2 000-2001) and the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort (1999 ongoing). These studies, which have collected information on history of violence, can now be linked to health registries as Medical Birth Registry and Norwegian Prescription Database, and thus yiel d the unique opportunity to study the relationships between violence and health indicators both in a cross-sectional and a longitudinal design. This application is for funding of a research project with activities linked to national and international coll aboration including an ongoing EU funded project (funding of research meetings national as well as international) as well as data management (funding for hourly based assistance), analysis and competence building in this field (funding of 2 PhD fellowshi ps ).