Intimate partner violence against women with disability and associated mental health concerns: a cross-sectional survey in Mumbai, India

Mapping the disparities in intimate partner violence prevalence and determinants across Sub-Saharan Africa

Objective

This study aimed to map disparities in prevalence and associated factors across countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Methods

We used National Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data from 26 countries in the region with 114,340 participants. Women and girls in the reproductive age group of 15 to 49 years were included in the study. To map disparities across countries and their provinces, we employed the kriging interpolation technique. We used STATA for data management.

Result

The prevalence of physical, emotional and sexual IPV in Sub-Saharan Africa was 30.58, 30.22, and 12.6% respectively, and at least one form of IPV was 42.62%. Disparities were observed across the countries and provinces in each country. Younger age, secondary-level education and above, moderate participation in decision-making, not working out of home, not afraid of the spouse, rich (wealth index), not having a child, high maternal literacy, and rural residence relatively decreased the odds of IPV. The husbands' lower education, alcohol consumption, and high controlling behavior increased the probability of IPV.

Conclusion

The prevalence of Intimate Partner Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa is the highest in the world, a signal that the global agenda to end all forms of violence against women will be difficult to achieve. There is a large gap across countries and provinces in each country. Area-specific intervention packages that focus on modifiable factors should be strengthened.

Reproductive Concerns Among Women with Disability: A Host of Opportunities for Reproductive Health Care Professionals

Background

Maternal health in India is likely to move towards an obstetric transition, wherein there is sustained reduction of maternal mortality and focus shifts towards improving quality of care. In such a context, reproductive concerns of special populations gain prominence. One such population group is women with disability.

What this review contains

This mini-review examines the incremental importance given to people with disabilities and the sparse data available on the topic of reproductive concerns among women with disability. The attitudes of the women with disability towards childbearing and the association between disability and obstetric problems are discussed. The limited available data on specific medical and obstetric problems among women with disability are reviewed.

Conclusions

The article calls for all obstetricians to display increased sensitivity and heightened cognizance towards the reproductive concerns among women with disability.

Association Between Disabilities, Educational Attainment, Literacy, and Intimate Partner Violence: Findings from the Indian National Family Health Surveys

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is widespread across the Global South, including India, due to cultural and patriarchal norms that encourage and facilitate such behaviors. These include age at marriage, community- and individual-level encouragement of IPV, and limited access to education across the Global South, particularly for women. Despite this, little research has sought to disentangle the role that disabilities play in affecting women's risk of IPV in India. The current study analyzes a sample of currently married women (N = 114,901) from the nationally representative 2015-2016 and 2019-2021 National Family Health Surveys (NFHS) to assess whether a relationship exists between these dimensions, while controlling for well-known IPV correlates, with physical IPV and controlling behaviors. Logistic regression analyses revealed that persons with cognitive/intellectual disabilities as well as blind respondents were more likely to experience physical IPV. Blind respondents were also more likely to experience controlling behavior. Further, findings indicate that those with no or some education were more likely to experience physical IPV relative to those with higher education. Findings from the current study demonstrate the need for IPV reduction policies to ensure that adequate accommodations are available to facilitate help-seeking behaviors among persons with disabilities. Tailored prevention policies are also needed which consider both context- and location-specific factors associated with risk.