Association of intimate partner violence with sociodemographic factors in married women: a population-based study in Iran

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a neglected public health issue in Iran. This study was conducted among married women residing in urban Rasht (northern Iran), to estimate the prevalence and frequency of different forms of IPV from husband and their associations with socio-demographic factors. We carried out a population-based cross-sectional survey with cluster sampling design from February to October 2015. The samples consisted of married women aged ≥ 18 years with total household in Rasht city (north Iran) as the sample frame. We administered the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS-2) to estimate prevalence of past-year IPV. Of 2091 women, 57.1% had suffered psychological aggression, 27.6% physical abuse, 26.6% sexual abuse, and 6.9% injury. A significant association with IPV was found for women with, age ≤ 40 years, unemployed, low education, husband's addiction and rented-householders. Women who experienced physical abuse, had less age at marriage than women without violence. Also women with sexual coercion had less length of marriage than other non-abused women. On logistic regression, the strongest predictor of psychological, physical and sexual abuse was unemployment of spouse, whereas for injury it was low educational level (<12 years) of women. Our findings suggest that risk of IPV is high in our population. There is an obvious need of preventive and treatment activities. Our findings point at that various forms of abuse are different from each other in terms of differing characteristics of the perpetrators and it might be that also different strategies are needed to reduce and prevent these violence. Confirmation by further research is needed.

Domestic violence against women in Shiraz, South-western Iran

“…Despite the differences in cultural, religious, economic and ethnic factors, the evi-dence is in favour of mental violence as the major do-mestic violence experienced all over the world. 7,17,18 The number of individuals in the present study who only experienced sexual and/or physical violence without any mental harm was scarcely low. Nonetheless, there are some studies in favor of physical violence, having a greater burden on public health.…”

International Adaptation of a Treatment Program for Situational Couple Violence

“…IPV is a significant problem in Iran. The most recent study in Iran that surveyed 2091 women showed that 57% had suffered psychological aggression, 28% physical abuse, 27% sexual abuse, and 7% injury (Ahmadi et al, ). Despite the high prevalence of IPV in Iran, there is no official social, legal, or financial support for women who are in violent marriages.…”

Correlates of intimate partner violence among married women in Uganda: a cross-sectional survey

“…Of all forms of GBV, intimate partner violence (IPV) is the most common form, which involves all physical, sexual, or psychological harms as well as controlling behaviors aggravated by a current or former partner [3,4]. The incidence of IPV is more severe in women compared to men with approximately 30% of women worldwide reporting violence by an intimate partner at some point in their life [5][6][7]. In low and middle income countries (LMICs), the prevalence of IPV is higher, with about 37% among women age 15-69 years [8].…”