Factors associated with intimate partner physical violence among women attending antenatal care in Shire Endaselassie town, Tigray, northern Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study, July 2015

Abstract

Background: Intimate partner physical violence is a common global phenomenon. About 30.00% and 38.83% of women in the world and in sub-Saharan Africa experienced physical violence by their partner respectively in 2013. Though intimate partner violence has serious adverse health consequences, there is limited information about partner violence during pregnancy in Ethiopia. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the prevalnce of physical intimate partner violence during pregnancy and associated factors among women attending antenatal care in Shire Endaselassie town, Tigray, northen Ethiopia Methods: A facility based cross-sectional study was conducted from May 3 to July 6, 2015. Four hundred and twenty-two pregnant women attending three public health facilities were included using systematic sampling technique. In addition, twenty-two purposely selected key informants were interviewed. The data collectors and supervisors were trained on all data collection processes. Data were entered to Epi-Info version 7.1.2.00 and exported to SPSS version 20.00. Logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with intimate partner physical violence. Statistical significance was declared at p < 0.05. Qualitative data were categorized into themes and triangulated with the quantitative results. Results: The prevalence of intimate partner physical violence in pregnancy was 20.6% (CI = 16.70, 24.90). Age at first marriage greater than or equal to 17 years (AOR = 4.42, CI = 2.07, 9.42), women with no formal education (AOR = 2.78 CI = 1.10, 7.08), rural dwellers (AOR = 2.63 CI = 1.24, 5.58), intimate partners with no formal education (AOR = 2.78 CI = 1.10, 7.08) and intimate partner alcohol consumption (AOR = 3.8 CI = 1.85, 7.82) were factors associated with intimate partner physical violence towards pregnant women. Conclusion: Nearly one fifth of women surveyed experienced intimate partner physical violence during pregnancy. Early marriage, rural dwelling, intimate partner alcohol consumption, and educational status were associated with intimate partner physical violence during pregnancy. Urgent attention to women's rights and health is essential at all levels to alleviate the problem and its risk factors in Tigray regional state of Ethiopia.

Magnitude of Intimate Partner Violence and Associated Factors among Pregnant Women in Ethiopia

“…e prevalence of intimate partner violence in this study is more than two times compared to the findings in Nigeria (14.8%) [29], Namibia (8%) [3], South Africa (15%) [30], and Brazil (15.5%) [31] and a study in Yirgalem, Ethiopia, (12%) [10]. It is also higher than the findings from Rwanda (29.2%) [12] and Ethiopia (Shirendasilase (20.6%) [9], Hulet Ejunesie (32.2%) [32], and Gonder (25.4%)) [18]. e possible explanation for the variation might be due to the difference in the accessibility of information on gender-based issues and reproductive health information and cultures of the study subjects.…”

“…e other difference could also be that findings from Ethiopia (Shirendasilase [9] and Yirgalem [10]) measured only physical violence, but in this study, three types of violence (psychological, physical, and sexual violence) were included. e association between respondents and their partner's sociodemographic and other-related characteristics and experiences of violence was assessed.…”

“…Intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy is of concern as the possible consequences pose risk to both mother and the unborn child [2]. It has many adverse consequences including pregnancy-related complications (inadequate, labor complications, stillbirth, preterm delivery, induced abortion, and deaths), mental health problems and poor emotional well-being (emotional distress, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and poor attachment), cognitive and behavioral problems (increased aggression, antisocial behavior, lower social competence, and impaired cognitive functioning), behaviors presenting risks to health including alcohol and drug misuse and eating disorders, and physical injuries are some of them [5,[9][10][11]. ey are also at higher risk of being infected with sexually transmitted disease/HIV and harmful neonatal consequences such as low birth weight [1].…”

Domestic Violence among Pregnant Women Attending the Ante-Natal Clinic of Primary Health Care Centre, Itu, Akwa Ibom State, South-South Nigeria

“…On reaction to the abuse, the study found that significant percentage of the abused women kept the assault secret while others reported to some persons. This is similar to finding from other studies, [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] 28 This is surprising considering the fact that more than one third of the abused women had higher education. This calls for greater enlightenment and education to pregnant women that domestic violence is not excusable at all.…”

Epidemiological and Clinical Aspects of Domestic Violence in Senegal

“…This rate is lower compared that found in the study by Boufettal H et al where it was estimated at 12.3% in Morocco [15]. In Ethiopia, nearly one fifth (20.6%) of the women interviewed were physically abused by intimate partners during pregnancy [16]. The situation is all the more worrying in a study carried out in Brazil where 49.6% were subjected to violence during their pregnancy [17].…”