This study evaluated the association between Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and mental health indicators, providing evidence to inform maternal health policy. This study used the first nationally representative cross-sectional data on mental health symptoms from the 2024 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS), including 13,951 women aged 15–49 years. Anxiety and depression were assessed using the GAD-7 and PHQ-9 scales, with a score of ≥10 indicating the presence of symptoms. Stepwise, survey-weighted multivariable logistic regression was employed to examine the associations of mental health indicators and various dimensions of IPV, reporting adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Physical IPV was significantly associated with higher odds of Depression aOR= 3.89; 95% CI: 2.16-6.95; p < 0.001), while Emotional IPV was also associated with higher odds of Depression aOR = 3.50; 95% CI: 2.09-5.86; p < 0.001). Similarly, Any IPV was associated with substantial higher odds with Depression aOR = 2.90; 95% CI: 1.80-4.67, p < 0.001) and Anxiety aOR = 2.05; 95% CI: 1.20-3.50, p = 0.008). These findings provide evidence-based, actionable insights for policymakers to integrate mental health and IPV prevention in high-burden provinces to meet the targets of SDG 3 and SDG 5.

The association between armed conflict and intimate partner violence (IPV) is well established. However, the mechanisms or drivers of this relationship are less well understood. This review provides a systematic synthesis of published literature on the factors driving the association between violence in the public and private spheres. Five databases (Web of Science, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO and PubMed) were systematically searched to identify all studies examining potential drivers. Inclusion criteria specified that studies should be based on adult samples, should measure or analyse the impact of conflict exposure, and should provide some insight into the drivers of the association between armed conflict and IPV, rather than only documenting the association. A total of 49 studies (25 qualitative and 24 quantitative) met the inclusion criteria. Identified drivers included individual, relational and structural factors. Among the most empirically supported drivers were conflict-related trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), stress associated with the economic effects of conflict and changes to gender roles and norms in the post-conflict setting. The intersection of these factors, particularly gender roles and economic factors, also emerged as a significant dynamic across multiple studies. The findings highlight the importance of integrating gender considerations, including IPV prevention and response, into humanitarian programming. There is a need for further research and theory-building to better integrate the factors operating at both individual and societal levels, and to better incorporate consideration of the influence of historical factors such as legacies of imperialism and colonial violence.

Recent polio outbreaks in Syria and Ukraine, and isolation of poliovirus from asymptomatic carriers in Israel have raised concerns that polio might endanger Europe. We devised a model to calculate the time needed to detect the first case should the disease be imported into Europe, taking the effect of vaccine coverage – both from inactivated and oral polio vaccines, also considering their differences – on the length of silent transmission into account by deriving an ‘effective’ case/infection ratio that is applicable for vaccinated populations. Using vaccine coverage data and the newly developed model, the relationship between this ratio and vaccine coverage is derived theoretically and is also numerically determined for European countries. This shows that unnoticed transmission is longer for countries with higher vaccine coverage and a higher proportion of IPV-vaccinated individuals among those vaccinated. Assuming borderline transmission (R = 1·1), the expected time to detect the first case is between 326 days and 512 days in different countries, with the number of infected individuals between 235 and 1439. Imperfect surveillance further increases these numbers, especially the number of infected until detection. While longer silent transmission does not increase the number of clinical diseases, it can make the application of traditional outbreak response methods more complicated, among others.