Adverse health effects of spousal violence among women attending Saudi Arabian primary health-care clinics

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the frequency of spousal violence among Saudi women and document the related health effects and injuries, as well as their attitudes to gender and violence. Structured interviews were conducted with 200 ever-married women recruited from primary-care centres in Jeddah. Nearly half of the surveyed women (44.5%) reported ever experiencing physical violence from their spouse. Although 37 women (18.5%) had received violencerelated injuries, only 6.5% had reported these injuries to a health-care provider. Victims of spousal violence had poor perceptions of their overall health, and reported pain or discomfort, antidepressant use and suicidal thoughts. Women mostly disagreed with the presented justifications for wife-beating. However, the association between gender attitudes and spousal violence was not significant. The results of this study support calls for integration of education about partner violence into health-care curricula to enhance the access and quality of services. ‬ ‫عليهـ‬ ‫ـول‬ ‫احلصـ‬ ‫ـرص‬ ‫وفـ‬ ‫ـات‬ ‫اخلدمـ‬ ‫ـة‬ ‫نوعيـ‬ ‫ـز‬ ‫لتعزيـ‬ ‫ـة‬ ‫الصحيـ‬ ‫ـة‬ ‫الرعايـ‬ ‫ـج‬ ‫مناهـ‬ ‫يف‬ ‫ـزوج‬ ‫الـ‬ ‫ـف‬ ‫عنـ‬ ‫ـن‬ ‫عـ‬ ‫ـف‬ ‫التثقيـ‬ ‫ـاج‬ ‫بإدمـ‬ ‫ـادي‬ ‫تنـ‬Effets indésirables de la violence conjugale sur la santé des femmes consultant dans des centres de soins de santé primaires en Arabie saoudite RÉSUMÉ La présente étude visait à examiner la fréquence de la violence physique infligée par les conjoints à des femmes saoudiennes et de documenter les effets sur la santé et les traumatismes qui y sont liés, ainsi que leurs attitudes vis-à-vis du sexisme et de la violence. Des entretiens structurés ont été menés auprès de 200 femmes ayant déjà été mariées, recrutées dans des centres de soins de santé primaires à Djedda. Près de la moitié des femmes ayant participé à l'enquête (44,5 %) ont déclaré avoir déjà été victimes de violence conjugale. Pourtant, si 37 femmes (18,5 %) ont présenté des traumatismes liés à la violence physique infligée par leur conjoint, seules 6,5 % avaient consulté un prestataire de soins de santé pour ce motif. Les victimes de violence conjugale avaient une perception médiocre de leur état de santé en général et affirmaient souffrir de douleur et de gêne, consommer des antidépresseurs et avoir des idées suicidaires. Les femmes interrogées étaient le plus souvent en désaccord avec les justifications proposées pour la violence conjugale. Toutefois, l'association entre les attitudes sexistes et la violence conjugale n'était pas significative. Les résultats de cette étude confirment la nécessité d'inclure une formation sur la violence conjugale dans les programmes d'études sur les soins de santé afin d'accroître l'accès aux services et leur qualité.

Prevalence of intimate partner violence against women in the Arab world: a systematic review

“…Except for five facility-based and one population-based study, most surveys met the sample size quality criteria of ≥ 300 or provided reasonable justification for the smaller sample size [58, 86]. Samples sizes varied widely, from 80 to 7105 in journals and from 2012 to 18100 in national DHS and governmental surveys.…”

A systematic literature review of intimate partner violence victimisation: An inclusive review across gender and sexuality

“…It is more than likely that this heavy weighting towards female victims in opposite-sex relationships is as a result of the traditional view of IPV as male-to-female relationship abuse (Graham-Kevan, 2007). In addition to this, Western countries were more likely to have conducted research that moved away from this traditional view, and countries where there is less empowerment for women focussed on violence against women, possibly meaning that less gender equality could result in more violence against women from men (Eldoseri et al, 2014). Finally, in terms of methodological and sampling themes, many research studies recruited from help-seeking populations.…”

“…Eaton et al, 2008;Kim, Park & Emery, 2009), with some even only using one question to assess it (e.g. Kunst, Bogaerts & Winkel, 2010 Bonomi, Anderson, Rivara & Thompson, 2007;Eldoseri, Tufts, Zhang & Fish, 2014;Johri et al, 2011). The measures that are especially designed for use with female victims may be restricted when measuring male victims' experiences and also the experiences of victims from the LGBTQ+ community.…”

“…Experiencing IPV victimisation can have direct physical outcomes, such as injury (e.g. Cerulli et al, 2012;Eldoseri et al, 2014;Hines & Douglas, 2016;Hines & Douglas, 2011;Weaver, Resnick, Kokoska & Etzel, 2007) and sexually transmitted infections (STIs; e.g. Sormanti & Shibusawa, 2008).…”

“…Das et al, 2013), did not seek help for abuse as often (e.g. Eldoseri et al, 2014), and tolerated abuse as a result of societal norms (e.g. Hayati, Eriksson, Hakimi, Högberg & Emmelin, 2013).…”