Time for action: Intimate partner violence troubles one third of Ethiopian women

Intimate partner violence and its associated factors among married women at Jeldu district, Central Ethiopia: A community-based mixed cross-sectional study

Background and Aims

Intimate partner violence is a global threat, regardless of any religious, cultural, or economic differences. Few studies have been conducted before in rural areas of Ethiopia. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the prevalence and associated factors of intimate partner violence among married women in Jeldu district.

Methods

A community-based mixed cross-sectional study was conducted among 620 married women in Jeldu district, west Ethiopia. A systematic random sampling technique was employed to select study participants. The quantitative data were checked and entered into Epidata and STATA version 15.0 for analysis. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression was used to identify the associated factors of intimate partner violence. The finding of the quantitative study was triangulated with the findings of focused group discussion.

Results

Six hundred seven married women participated in the study making a response rate of 97.43%. The lifetime and past 12 months prevalence of intimate partner violence was 57.7% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 53.78%-61.62%) and 53.20% (95% CI: 49.28%-57.12%) respectively. Partner with lower education (adjusted odd ratio [AOR] = 3.64 (95% CI: 1.07-12.38), alcohol intake by partner (AOR = 1.92, 95% CI: 1.31-2.81), equal dominance on family affairs (AOR = 0.30, 95% CI: 0.18-0.51), and family size >5 (AOR = 4.54, 95% CI: 1.89-10.91) were factors significantly associated with intimate partner violence.

Conclusion

The prevalence of intimate partner violence was relatively higher among married women study area. Partner's lower educational status, alcohol intake of the partner, dominance on family issues, and family size were factors associated with intimate partner violence. So, gender offices, and district and regional educational sectors should design appropriate strategies and work hard to tackle the problem.

Factors contributing to the high prevalence of intimate partner violence among south Sudanese refugee women in Ethiopia

BACKGROUND

Intimate partner violence is a universally occurring form of violence against women which is perpetrated by a husband or other intimate partner. It is a common public health problem during humanitarian crisis. Despite this, little is known about the problem among South Sudanese refugee women in Ethiopia.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to determine the prevalence of intimate partner violence and identify its contributing factors among married refugee women in Pinyudo refugee camp, Gambella, Ethiopia in 2021.

METHODS

A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from March to June 2021. A random sample of 406 refugee women was included in the study. A structured, pretested, and interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data were entered into epi-data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 22 for analysis. Multivariable logistic regression was run to identify factors associated with intimate partner violence. Statistical significance was affirmed using Adjusted Odds Ratio with its 95% Confidence Interval at a p-value ≤ 0.05.

RESULTS

A total of 406 married refugee women participated in the study making a response rate of 96.2%. The overall prevalence of intimate partner violence in the past 12 months was 48.3% 95% CI= (43.6-53.2). Low-income contribution [AOR = 2.4, 95% CI: 1.2-5.5], and attitudinal acceptance [AOR = 2.1, 95%CI: 1.2-3.8] were significantly associated with the problem.

CONCLUSION

The prevalence of intimate partner violence is alarmingly high as half of participating women reported facing the problem in the year preceding the study. Low-income contribution and attitudinal acceptance were associated with a higher probability of experiencing violence. The government, humanitarian organizations, and other stakeholders should enable refugee women to generate income. There should be continuous women empowerment and behavioral interventions to improve refugee women's attitudes towards intimate partner violence.

Intimate partner violence among young women in Ibadan, Nigeria: are there slum and non-slum differences?

This study determined the past-year prevalence of physical, sexual and psychological intimate partner violence (IPV) and associated factors among young women in urban slums and non-slums of Ibadan, Nigeria.A cross-sectional study, using a multistage cluster sampling method was used to select 1050 ever-partnered young women aged between 18 and 24 years from the five Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Ibadan municipal. All localities were classified into slums and non-slums using the UN-Habitat 2003 criterion. Independent variables were respondents' and partners' characteristics. Dependent variables were physical, sexual and psychological IPV. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression model (α0.05).Prevalence of physical (31.4%, 13.4%), sexual (37.1%, 18.3%), and psychological IPV (58.6%, 31.5%) were significantly higher in the slum than non-slum communities. Multivariate analysis showed that secondary education (aOR:0.45, 95%CI: 0.21 - 0.92) reduced IPV experience while being unmarried (aOR:2.83, 95%CI: 1.28 - 6.26), partner's alcohol use (aOR:1.97, 95%CI: 1.22 - 3.18), and partner's relationship with other women (aOR:1.79, 95%CI: 1.10 -2.91) increased IPV experience in slum communities. In non-slum communities, having children (aOR:2.99, 95%CI: 1.05-8.51), non-consensual sexual debut (aOR: 1.88, 95%CI: 1.07-3.31) and witness of abuse in childhood (aOR:1.82: 95%CI: 1.01 - 3.28) increased experience of IPV. Acceptance of IPV and partner's witness of abuse in childhood increased experience of IPV in both settings.This study confirms that IPV is common among young women in Ibadan, Nigeria, but higher among women in slum communities. Findings also showed different factors associated with IPV in slum and non-slum communities. Therefore, targeted interventions for each urban stratum are recommended.

Neglected burden of injuries in Ethiopia, from 1990 to 2019: a systematic analysis of the global burden of diseases study 2019

Background

The 2030 agenda for sustainable development goals has given injury prevention new attention, including halving road traffic injuries. This study compiled the best available evidence on injury from the global burden of diseases study for Ethiopia from 1990 to 2019.

Methods

Injury data on incidence, prevalence, mortality, disability-adjusted life years lost, years lived with disability, and years of life lost were extracted from the 2019 global burden of diseases study for regions and chartered cities in Ethiopia from 1990 to 2019. Rates were estimated per 100,000 population.

Results

In 2019, the age-standardized rate of incidence was 7,118 (95% UI: 6,621-7,678), prevalence was 21,735 (95% UI: 19,251-26,302), death was 72 (95% UI: 61-83), disability-adjusted life years lost was 3,265 (95% UI: 2,826-3,783), years of live lost was 2,417 (95% UI: 2,043-2,860), and years lived with disability was 848 [95% UI: (620-1,153)]. Since 1990, there has been a reduction in the age-standardized rate of incidence by 76% (95% UI: 74-78), death by 70% (95% UI: 65-75), and prevalence by 13% (95% UI: 3-18), with noticeable inter-regional variations. Transport injuries, conflict and terrorism, interpersonal violence, self-harm, falls, poisoning, and exposure to mechanical forces were the leading causes of injury-related deaths and long-term disabilities. Since 1990, there has been a decline in the prevalence of transport injuries by 32% (95% UI: 31-33), exposure to mechanical forces by 12% (95% UI: 10-14), and interpersonal violence by 7.4% (95% UI: 5-10). However, there was an increment in falls by 8.4% (95% UI: 7-11) and conflict and terrorism by 1.5% (95% UI: 38-27).

Conclusion

Even though the burden of injuries has steadily decreased at national and sub-national levels in Ethiopia over the past 30 years, it still remains to be an area of public health priority. Therefore, injury prevention and control strategies should consider regional disparities in the burden of injuries, promoting transportation safety, developing democratic culture and negotiation skills to solve disputes, using early security-interventions when conflict arises, ensuring workplace safety and improving psychological wellbeing of citizens.

Maternal exposure to intimate partner violence and uptake of maternal healthcare services in Ethiopia: Evidence from a national survey

Background

Women exposed to Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) often do not utilize maternal health care optimally both because of stigma and other social problems. The current study aims to explore an association between maternal healthcare seeking and violence exposure among Ethiopian women and to assess if educational attainment and wealth status moderate this association.

Methods

The analyses included 2836 (weighted) currently married women with one live birth. We focus on the five years preceding the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) who participate, in the domestic violence sub-study. Exposure was determined by maternal reports of physical, emotional, sexual IPV or any form of IPV. The utilization of antenatal care (ANC) and place of delivery were used as proxy outcome variables for uptake of skilled maternal healthcare utilization. Women’s education attainment and wealth status were selected as potential moderators, as they can enable women with psychological and financial resources to counteract impact of IPV. Multilevel logistic regression analyses were used to explore the association between spousal IPV and maternal health outcomes. Moderation effects by education and wealth status were tested, and the data stratified. Using statistical software Stata MP 16.1, the restricted maximum likelihood method, we obtained the model estimates.

Results

About 27.5% of the women who reported exposure to any form of IPV had a health facility delivery. While 23.4% and 22.4% visited four or more antenatal care services among mothers exposed to emotional IPV and sexual IPV, respectively. After adjusting for potential confounding factors, only the association between maternal exposure to emotional IPV and adequate use of ANC was statistically significant (OR = 0.73, (95% CI:0.56–0.95)). But we found no significant association between IPV and utilization of health facility delivery. Some moderation effects of education and wealth in the association between IPV and maternal healthcare service utilization outcome were found.

Conclusion

Exposure to emotional IPV was associated with poor uptake of maternal health care service utilization for married Ethiopian women. While developing interventions to improve women’s maternal healthcare service use, it is crucial to consider the effects of socio-economic variables that moderate the association especially with the intersection of IPV.

Assessing the prevalence and association between physical, emotional, and sexual of intimate partner violence against women in Nigeria

BACKGROUND

Several studies were carried out on prevalence and associated factors of physical, emotional, and sexual violence against women. However, little attention was given to a comprehensive study that assesses the association between physical, emotional, and sexual violence against women. Thus, this study aimed to assess the association between physical, emotional, and sexual violence against women and their prevalence.

METHODS

A retrospective cross-sectional design was implemented based on the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey involving 8061 married women aged 15-49. A log-linear statistical model for the three-way table was used to assess the association between emotional, physical, and sexual violence. SAS statistical software was used for data management and parameter estimation.

RESULTS

Among a total of 8061 women considered in the study 3022 (37.49%), 4216 (52.3%) and 1186 (14.71%) women have experienced physical, emotional, and sexual violence, respectively. The estimated odds of the interaction between emotional and physical violence (e^1.9281 = 6.876); physical and sexual violence (e^-2.0529 = 0.128) were significantly differ from 1.0 with p-values < 0:0001 and 0.0201, respectively.

CONCLUSION

Over 33 percent of women experienced at least one incident of physical, emotional, or sexual violence in their lifetime. Physical violence against women has a significant association with emotional and sexual violence. However, it does not imply physical violence causes the other violence since cross-sectional data used for the analysis and other factors were not taken into consideration. The lack of a three-way association between emotional, physical, and sexual violence was also perceived. Therefore, as the prevalence of intimate partner violence against women s high, Nigeria as a country needs to strive to reduce it with the collaboration of other nations in the world to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). Design and apply guidelines to aware of the community about intimate partner violence against women and besides, take appropriate sentencing on those who commit the violence are the better approaches to prevent violence. Traditional habits that might be the cause of violence should be avoided to reduce or prevent the burden of women due to violence.

Determinants of husbands' violence against women in Jordan

BACKGROUND

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is the most common form of abuse against women. It comes in the form of physical, sexual, emotional, and controlling behaviors abuse, and affects women's physical and psychological well-being. Perceived social support decreases IPV risk.

PURPOSE

This study explores the determinants of IPV in J society.

METHOD

One hundred and eighty-seven women exposed to IPV were recruited from J Women Unions to take part in this cross-sectional prospective quantitative design, administering the Arabic version of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (AVMSPSS) to 187, who also answered the demographic characteristics data sheet.

RESULTS

Almost 83% of participants perceived that they received lower to moderate PSS. Based on multiple regression, determinants of IPV were PSS, followed by participant education, husband education, participant age, and financial income (p < .001). The number of children and parental level of education showed no statistical significance.

CONCLUSION

The findings highlight the importance of social support systems among IPV women. Alongside socioeconomic development continuing to increase education among both men and women, there is a need to increase societal awareness and foster social support systems to prevent violence against women and offer resources to affected women, targeted at the most at-risk age groups.

Lived experience of intimate partner violence among women using antiretroviral therapy and other outpatient services in Wolaita Zone, Ethiopia: a phenomenological study

BACKGROUND

Ethiopia is one of the nations which has an enormous burden of intimate partner violence (IPV), and where it is usually difficult to talk about HIV separately from IPV.

OBJECTIVES

This research aimed to explore the lived experience of IPV against women using antiretroviral therapy (ART) and other outpatient services in Wolaita Zone, Ethiopia METHODS: We used an Interpretive (hermeneutic) Phenomenological Analysis design among purposively selected adult women aged 18-49 years. A total of 43 women participated in this study, of whom 30 were using ART, and 13 women were using other health services. We used an in-depth interview and focus group discussions until data saturation, while conscious of the need to maintain the scientific rigor, dependability, and credibility. The data were transcribed verbatim and translated into English. We read the transcripts repeatedly to understand the content. We used NVivo 11 software to assist with data organisation, and also, we used the framework analysis method.

RESULTS

We identified five themes, namely: "women's terrifying experiences of violence," "the effect of violence on women's health," "support/lack of support /partner's controlling behaviours," "women's feelings about the available services," and "IPV prevention strategies from the perspective of women." Interviewees described their violent experiences which included wife-beating, being stigmatised in front of others, having material thrown at the woman's face, wife's hand and teeth were broken, forced sex, restriction of movement, name-calling, threats to hurt, being insulted, being left alone, and the withdrawal of finances. The negative health impacts reported included abortion, infection with HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, disability, child's death, and depression. The disclosure of HIV test information resulted in violence. Inappropriate punishment of the perpetrator and the lack of a supportive women's network to avert IPV were perceived as legal limitations.

CONCLUSIONS

IPV is a considerable health burden, varying in its presentation and its negative impact on women's health. Improved laws should provide justice for all victims. Establishing a women's network to assist women at risk of violence, should be emphasised. Unwise HIV test result disclosure leads to IPV; hence HIV disclosure should be facilitated through health care providers.

Healthcare Worker Experience and the Challenges in Screening for Intimate Partner Violence Among Women Who Use Antiretroviral Therapy and Other Health Services in Wolaita Zone, Ethiopia: A Phenomenological Study

Background

Intimate partner violence is a crime against humanity. This study aimed to explore the experiences and challenges in screening for intimate partner violence among women who use antiretroviral therapy and other health services in Wolaita Zone in Ethiopia.

Methods

A descriptive phenomenological qualitative study design was used, and 16 in-depth interviews were conducted with healthcare workers from 19 health facilities who were providing healthcare services in Wolaita Zone. We selected participants purposively until data saturation was reached. Colaizzi’s descriptive phenomenological method was used for the data analysis, and the Open Code software was used to assist with the data coding. We maintained the scientific rigour of credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability.

Results

Analysis of the study data identified the following five themes: type of IPV identified by HCWs among women, provider-related barriers, healthcare system barriers, patient-level barriers, and providers’ recommendations for improvements. Issues that emerged from these findings were a gap in medico-legal report provision, absence of a separate record-keeping for IPV cases, lack of client follow-up, absence of routine assessment of violence for women who have injuries, and lack of specific coordination with an external organisation. Moreover, the absence of staff training, weak referral systems, and a shortage of necessary medical equipment challenged IPV screening.

Conclusion

This study has shown that there are healthcare provider and health system challenges relating to screening clients for intimate partner violence in Wolaita Zone. Provision of separate record-keeping of intimate partner violence cases in the healthcare facilities, standardising the medico-legal reporting system, improving women’s access to education, and executing more gender-equitable policies, are needed. Moreover, the inclusion of intimate partner violence-specific policy frameworks in national legislation is necessary.

Disclosure of Intimate Partner Violence and Associated Factors among Victimized Women, Ethiopia, 2018: A Community-Based Study

Background

Disclosure is a vital step in the process of finding a lasting solution and breaking the abuse chain in a victim woman by the intimate partner.

Objectives

This study is aimed at assessing the disclosure of intimate partner violence and associated factors among victim women in Dilla town, Gedeo Zone, South Ethiopia, 2018.

Methods

A community-based cross-sectional study design triangulated with the qualitative method was employed. Data were collected from 280 women victims of intimate partner violence using pretested, structured, and interviewer-administered questionnaires. SPSS version 20.0 software was used for analysis. Binary logistic regression and a multivariate logistic regression model were fitted to assess the association between the independent and dependent variables. Qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews and categorized into themes and triangulated with the quantitative result.

Results

Half of the respondents (51%) disclosed intimate partner violence. Partner alcohol use (AOR = 1.99; 95% CI:1.18, 3.34), women experiencing a single type of intimate partner violence (AOR = 0.38, 95% CI: 0.17, 0.79), women having strong social support (AOR = 2.52; 95% CI:1.44, 4.41), and women whose partners' having primary (AOR = 2.04; 95% CI:1.07, 3.9) and secondary education (AOR = 2.16; 95% CI: 1.07, 4.33) were significantly associated with the disclosure of intimate partner violence as the qualitative result shows most of the women prefer their family to disclose and those who kept silent were due to economic dependency, societal norms towards wife beating, arranged marriage, and not getting the chance especially those who went to the hospital.

Conclusion

Nearly 50% of victims of intimate partner violence women disclose intimate partner violence to others. Thus, it is needed for stakeholders to use their efforts to further increase the disclosure of violence and respect women's rights and equality.