Research report: Prevalence, associated factors, and experiences of intimate partner violence among women with breast cancer: a mixed-methods cross-sectional study

Every one of 213 women with breast cancer interviewed in a cross-sectional study at a city hospital in Türkiye reported emotional or verbal violence from an intimate partner. Substantial proportions also reported economic violence, sexual violence and physical violence, with respective rates of 46.0%, 30.1% and 19.3%. The findings document the reported experiences of this clinical sample but do not establish how common intimate partner violence is among women with breast cancer more generally.

The research was conducted in the surgical oncology service of a city hospital between March and August 2024. It used a convergent mixed-methods descriptive cross-sectional design, combining quantitative data from a demographic questionnaire and the Husband Violence Against Women Scale with qualitative information collected through open-ended questions. The latter responses were analyzed using thematic analysis, while the quantitative data were analyzed in SPSS for Windows version 21.0.

Ethics approval and written informed consent were obtained from the participants. Because the study collected data at one point from one hospital service, it cannot establish changes in violence over time or determine whether breast cancer, its treatment or other circumstances contributed to the reported abuse. Total scores on the Husband Violence Against Women Scale averaged 75.45, with a standard deviation of 20.01.

Scores differed significantly by place of residence, educational level, income level and whether a woman was receiving chemotherapy or radiotherapy, with all reported comparisons yielding p < 0.05. Women living in rural areas, those with lower levels of education, those whose income was lower than their expenses and those receiving chemotherapy or radiotherapy had higher total violence-scale scores than women in the corresponding comparison groups. There were no statistically significant differences by employment status or surgery status, with both comparisons yielding p > 0.05.

These findings describe statistical associations within the studied group; they do not show that residence, education, finances or treatment caused the violence. The mix of reported violence categories shows that the experiences captured by the scale were not limited to physical acts. Emotional or verbal violence was reported by all 213 participants, while economic violence was reported by 46.0%, sexual violence by 30.1% and physical violence by 19.3%.

The qualitative component was intended to examine participants’ experiences through open-ended questions and thematic analysis, but the supplied research findings do not report the resulting themes or individual accounts. The available evidence therefore supports the reported frequencies of violence and the group-level score differences, but it does not provide enough information to describe in detail the qualitative patterns or consequences of the reported abuse. The study’s conclusions identify intimate partner violence as common among the women studied and associate higher violence scores with rural residence, lower education, financial disadvantage and receipt of chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

Those conclusions apply to the accessible sample of women diagnosed with breast cancer at a single surgical oncology service in Türkiye. The design does not show whether these characteristics preceded or followed the violence, whether the treatment-related association reflects a causal effect or whether the same pattern would appear in other hospitals or countries. It also cannot demonstrate a temporal trend.

Within these limits, the uniformly reported emotional or verbal violence and the economic, sexual and physical violence reported by many participants provide the study’s clearest measured picture of intimate partner violence among women receiving breast cancer care at the hospital.

Subject of Research: Reported intimate partner violence and associated factors among 213 women with breast cancer in a Turkish hospital

Article Title: Prevalence, associated factors, and experiences of intimate partner violence among women with breast cancer: a mixed-methods cross-sectional study

Article References: Ozkaya, S., & Yildirim, N. (2026). Prevalence, associated factors, and experiences of intimate partner violence among women with breast cancer: a mixed-methods cross-sectional study. BMC Cancer. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-026-16890-7

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12885-026-16890-7

Keywords: intimate partner violence, breast cancer, cross-sectional study, mixed methods, emotional violence, economic violence, sexual violence, physical violence, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, Türkiye, Prevalence