Abstract
Previous studies have observed heterogeneous changes in domestic violence-related 911 calls, police incident reports, and arrests at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we use a large-scale medical claims database with coverage of over 100 million patients to examine the impact on domestic violence victims’ use of emergency department care for their injuries in the early weeks of the pandemic compared to the corresponding weeks in previous years. We find a 23–35% decrease in utilization of emergency medical services by domestic violence victims between March and June of 2020. Based on this finding, it is essential to use caution when using medical claims to measure domestic violence in future research covering this time period. Decreases in care utilization also have important implications for the detection, screening, and treatment of domestic violence injuries during future public health crises.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 535-562 |
| Number of pages | 28 |
| Journal | Review of Economics of the Household |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 2024 |
Funding
We thank the COVID-19 Research Database for invaluable resources and platforms and we thank the COVID-19 Research Accelerator Program (administered by the Health Care Cost Institute and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Grant #INV-031351) and the Walter J. McInerney Award at the University of Michigan for funding enabling our work.
Keywords
- COVID-19
- Crime
- Domestic Violence
- Health insurance
- Hospital emergency services
- I12
- I18
- J12
- K42
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
- Economics and Econometrics
