Q&A: Global burden of sexual violence against children and intimate partner violence
Published December 19, 2025
Sexual violence against children (SVAC) and intimate partner violence (IPV) against women are two of the most devastating yet persistently underrecognized global health challenges and rank among the top risks for mortality and morbidity worldwide, according to research published in The Lancet using data from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2023 study.
Transcript
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Q. Why was it important to undertake this study?
A. Violence against women and children is everywhere, yet it’s been invisible in global health priorities. Until now, we didn’t fully understand just how devastating they are to people’s health. Previous research only looked at a handful of health outcomes resulting from exposure to violence. And this study was needed to reveal a more complete picture of their health impact at a population level.
By looking at many more health problems, including mental health issues, HIV, and chronic diseases, we are showing that violence isn’t just a social problem or a crime issue, it’s actually one of the biggest health threats in the world.
Q. What were the key findings of the study?
A. In our study, we estimated that over 1 billion people have experienced sexual violence as children, and more than 600 million women have endured intimate partner violence. Together, these two risks contributed to over 50 million years of healthy life lost in 2023 alone. Among women aged 15 to 49, intimate partner violence ranked as the fourth-leading risk factor for disease burden globally, ahead of high blood sugar and high blood pressure.
This chart here shows DALY rates attributable to intimate partner violence by cause globally and for each of the GBD super-regions in 2023. And you can see that mental health disorders, in blue, were major components of DALYs attributable to this form of violence across all regions, and HIV/AIDS stood out in sub-Saharan Africa.
This map shows age-standardized estimates of lifetime prevalence of intimate partner violence among women aged 15 and over. And we see countries across many regions with prevalence greater than 20%, with some of the highest rates in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Sexual violence against children ranked fifth. As displayed in this plot, mental health disorders were also the major cause attributable to this form of violence among females in 2023. But we also see that self-harm, in green, stood out in South Asia, while drug use disorders, in orange, was particularly relevant in the high-income region.
In this other plot, which shows DALY rates attributed to sexual violence against children among males, in 2023, we see that mental health disorders continue to be important causes linked to this form of violence, but self-harm and substance use disorders are now major components across all regions.
We also found that these two risks are linked to far more health outcomes than previously recognized. We found 14 outcomes associated with childhood sexual violence and eight health outcomes associated with intimate partner violence, including mental health disorders, injuries, HIV, and even diabetes.
Q. What geographical differences were revealed by the study?
A. The first thing to note is that the highest disease burden, linked to intimate partner violence and sexual violence against children, was found in sub-Saharan Africa, but also in the high-income region, proving that economic development alone does not protect against the health impacts of violence.
Q. What challenges were there in doing this study?
A. In terms of challenges, these forms of violence are still massively underreported due to stigma, fear, and lack of safe reporting mechanisms. That way, we had to work with incomplete data and to account for this hidden burden. And for establishing the associations between intimate partner violence and childhood sexual abuse and health outcomes, we incorporated evidence from hundreds of studies, but the evidence base is still relatively weak. That way, despite our advances, the real burden is likely still even greater than we were able to measure.
Q. How do you hope the findings of the study will be used?
A. We truly hope that this research changes how the world responds to violence. First, violence must be recognized as a major public health emergency, not just a social or criminal problem. It also deserves funding and attention on par with other leading health threats. Second, it is clear that we need comprehensive prevention strategies but also need to ensure that we are addressing the social and health needs of the billions of survivors globally that will continue to require long-term health care and other forms of support.
Finally, we need to continue to monitor these risks with high-quality data. It’s clear that acting now can avert deaths and disability globally and contribute to healthier societies.