INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE AND MATERNAL HEALTH IN NIGERIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR CORONAVIRUS DISEASE (COVID 19) LOCKDOWN MEASURE

Author(s):  
Atsiya Amos ◽  
◽  
Atsiya Pius ◽  

A very recent article published in The Guardian (2020) reported on how the surge of domestic violence cases is a pattern being repeated A very recent article published in The Guardian (2020) reported on how the surge of domestic violence cases is a pattern being repeated very recent article published in The Guardian (2020) reported on how the surge of domestic violence cases is a pattern being repeated Among measures recommended by the World Health organization to stem the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus is the restriction of population movement (lockdown). With the lockdown, there appear to be a global surge in intimate partner violence (IPV) and how this impact on maternal health is the motivation for this study. Understanding IPV and how it influences maternal health, within an economic framework will be potentially relevant especially with the increasing use of lockdown to curb the surge of the virus. In this study, we identify factors of domestic violence against women within couples who were currently in marital or cohabiting partnerships. Also, we investigate whether domestic violence influences the decision of women to terminate pregnancies. We use data from the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS). Multivariate logistic regressions were used to model the predictors of domestic violence, and its influence on the decision to terminate pregnancies among married women. Of the 8,910 married women interviewed for domestic violence, 35.33% had ever experienced a form of domestic violence. We discover that having higher education, not being poor, and residing in urban areas reduce the odds of women experiencing domestic violence. Further, findings from the study indicate that women who own land, and whose husbands use alcohol have increased odds of experiencing domestic violence. Also, the results suggest that currently married women experiencing domestic violence have 1.25 times increased odds of terminating pregnancies compared with their counterparts that are not experiencing domestic violence. Our results suggest the implementation of short-term measures to address the issues of poverty and alcohol consumption during lockdown periods. Long-term measures could include legislations supporting compulsory girl-child education and criminalising all forms of domestic violence. Importantly, public actions to contain domestic violence in order to improve maternal health should be implemented in the context of the dynamics of a non-cooperative relationship existing between married couples.

Author(s):  
Lucy C Potter ◽  
Richard Morris ◽  
Kelsey Hegarty ◽  
Claudia García-Moreno ◽  
Gene Feder

Abstract Background Intimate partner violence (IPV) damages health and is costly to families and society. Individuals experience different forms and combinations of IPV; better understanding of the respective health effects of these can help develop differentiated responses. This study explores the associations of different categories of IPV on women’s mental and physical health. Methods Using data from the World Health Organization (WHO) Multi-Country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence, multilevel mixed effects logistic regression modelling was used to analyse associations between categories of abuse (physical IPV alone, psychological IPV alone, sexual IPV alone, combined physical and psychological IPV, and combined sexual with psychological and/or physical IPV) with measures of physical and mental health, including self-reported symptoms, suicidal thoughts and attempts, and nights in hospital. Results Countries varied in prevalence of different categories of IPV. All categories of IPV were associated with poorer health outcomes; the two combined abuse categories were the most damaging. The most common category was combined abuse involving sexual IPV, which was associated with the poorest health [attempted suicide: odds ratio (OR): 10.78, 95% confidence interval (CI) 8.37-13.89, thoughts of suicide: 8.47, 7.03-10.02, memory loss: 2.93, 2.41-3.56]. Combined psychological and physical IPV was associated with the next poorest outcomes (attempted suicide: 5.67, 4.23-7.60, thoughts of suicide: 4.41, 3.63-5.37, memory loss: 2.33, 1.88-2.87-). Conclusions Understanding the prevalence and health impact of different forms and categories of IPV is crucial to risk assessment, tailoring responses to individuals and planning services. Previous analyses that focused on singular forms of IPV likely underestimated the more harmful impacts of combined forms of abuse.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 37-52
Author(s):  
Prativa Tiwari ◽  
Gauri Shrestha

Background: Intimate Partner Violence is a major health and human rights problem. Globally, intimate partner violence includes physical act of violence together with sexual coercion, physical threats, psychological abuse and controlling actions by the intimate partner.Objective: This study aims to identify the factors influencing intimate partner violence of married women in Pokhara, Lekhnath Metropolitan City ward number 27, Kaski, Nepal.Materials and Methods: This study is entirely based on the primary data. The sample contains 303 married women of 15-49 years selected by systematic sampling. Data was collected using structured questionnaire and face to face interview. The questionnaire used is modified version of the questionnaire designed and recommended by World Health Organization (WHO) and Program for Appropriate Technology in Health ‘PATH’ (2005). Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical methods. To determine the significant factors, Logistic regression model was used for establishing linkage between intimate partner violence and several explanatory variables.Results: Fitted model showed the variables, affair with other women and alcohol consumption habit were highly significant predictors for the intimate partner violence. Occupation of husband was significant predictor for physical violence and occupation of respondent was significant for sexual violence. Goodness of fit tests (Hosmer-Lemeshow chi-square statistic, Negelkerke R2) showed that all three models fit well to the proposed Logistic regression model.Conclusion: Although violence is a multidimensional concept, this study has attempted to capture three types of violence namely psychological, physical and sexual called IPV. The IPV was collapsed to create a dichotomous variable on the basis of whether the woman has IPV or not. A number of independent variables are taken into account based on scientific literature review.Nepalese Journal of Statistics, Vol. 2, 37-52


2019 ◽  
pp. 088626051988819
Author(s):  
Sanni Yaya ◽  
Alzahra Hudani ◽  
Amos Buh ◽  
Ghose Bishwajit

Intimate partner violence (IPV) among married women of childbearing age can significantly enhance their risk of adverse health outcomes such as injury and disability, depression and anxiety, unwanted pregnancies, premature labor, complications with delivery, and perinatal and neonatal mortality. The objective of this study was to examine the prevalence and individual and societal factors associated with IPV among Egyptian women. Cross-sectional data on 12,205 ever-married women between the ages of 15 to 49 years were collected from the Egypt Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS). Data from the 2005 and 2014 EDHS were pooled and analyzed. Self-reported responses on violence by husbands were classified into physical, sexual, and emotional violence. The factors of association were quantified using logistic regression methods. The prevalence of experiencing any form of violence among ever-married women in Egypt was 29.4%. Overall, women reported experiencing physical, emotional, and sexual violence at 26.7%, 17.8%, and 4.6%, respectively. Women in the age group of 25 to 29 years had the highest odds (odds ratio [OR] = 1.539, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.327, 1.785]) of suffering from any form of IPV. Women residing in urban areas (OR = 1.149, 95% CI = [1.046, 1.262]), having only a primary-level education (OR = 1.756, 95% CI = [1.543, 1.999]), being followers of Islam (OR = 1.713, 95% CI = [1.379, 2.126]), and having husbands with no education (OR = 1.422, 95% CI = [1.263, 1.601]) reported having higher odds of experiencing any form of IPV. Nearly one third of married women of childbearing age are exposed to IPV of any form in Egypt. IPV intervention programs should pay special attention to the socioeconomically vulnerable segments of the population and promote educational status among men and women to curb the occurrence of IPV.


Author(s):  
Emily Wright ◽  
Brandon Valgardson

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious problem that affects many individuals and crosses national borders, religions, gender, sexual orientation, racial, and ethnic groups (Harvey, Garcia-Moreno, & Butchart, 2007; Krug, Mercy, Dahlberg, & Zwi, 2002). The World Health Organization has defined intimate partner violence as any behavior that inflicts harm on an intimate partner, such as a spouse, prior spouse, or partner. This harm can be physical, psychological, or sexual in nature and is inflicted through physical aggression, psychological abuse, sexual coercion, or other controlling behaviors (Krug et al., 2002). At times, the terms domestic violence and partner/spouse abuse are used interchangeably with the term intimate partner violence (Harvey et al., 2007). Historically, intimate partner violence was seen as a matter to be dealt with in the home (Andrews & Khavinson, 2013); that is, it was largely considered a private issue between intimate partners. As such, little attention or support was extended toward victims of violence. The women’s rights movement during the 1970s brought many of the deleterious effects of IPV to the attention of the public. As a result, assistance became increasingly available for victims (Dugan, Nagin, & Rosenfeld, 2003). Some of the efforts to provide assistance to victims of IPV include mandatory arrest laws, victim advocacy, counseling services, shelters, and crisis hotlines. Substantial efforts have been made to provide needed services to the victims of IPV, yet the exact rates of victimization are unknown. This is due to different research methodologies and operationalizations of IPV that are used across studies. For instance, there is some controversy as to whether IPV should be measured by acts of violence (e.g., hitting, choking) or the severity of injuries (e.g., bruises, broken bones). Complicating the issue is the fact that different sampling methods may yield different estimates of IPV. Research drawn from the general population, for instance, may uncover higher rates of less severe IPV, while purposive samples drawn from domestic violence shelters may yield higher rates of severe IPV (Johnson, 2008). Measurement challenges also occur because many individuals underreport or misrepresent their victimization. Thus, research that incorporates multiple study designs and sampling techniques, indicates that approximately 16% of adults in the United States experience IPV victimization each year (Langhinrichsen-Rohling, Misra, Selwyn, & Rohling, 2012). Social scientists have used a number of theories to better understand IPV. These theories include feminist theories, power theories, social learning theories, and personality theories. Research grounded in these theories has found many risk factors that are related to the likelihood of victimization and perpetration. Additionally, various risk factors for IPV perpetration and victimization have been identified, including individual (e.g., alcohol abuse, anger), historical (e.g., abuse as a child), and demographic (e.g., cohabitation, age) factors (Stith et al., 2000; Stith, Smith, Penn, Ward, & Tritt, 2004). Recently, behavioral scientists have begun to investigate the biological and genetic factors related to IPV perpetration (Barnes, TenEyck, Boutwell, & Beaver, 2013; Hines & Saudino, 2004). Because there are many short- and long-term negative effects of IPV victimization, scholars and advocates continue to explore new avenues to increase understanding of IPV perpetration and victimization to better assist victims and perpetrators. Currently, the main sources of help for victims of IPV include mandatory arrest laws, domestic violence shelters, crisis hotlines, civil protection orders, victim advocacy, treatment programs, and informal means of assistance. However, each of these resources has demonstrated varying degrees of effectiveness for increasing victim support and reducing repeated victimization.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tazeen Saeed Ali

The World Health Organization [1] has defined violence as “the intentional use of physical force, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in, or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, mal-development or deprivation’’ [1]. According to the WHO [1] typology of violence, there are mainly three types, such as, self-directed, interpersonal, and collective violence; these types are further divided into subtypes [1]. The current study focused on interpersonal (intimate partner or domestic) violence against married men. The Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) can be defined as the physical, psychological, or sexual harm by current/previous partner or spouse; domestic violence is used interchangeably with IPVs [2]. Violence against women is extensively studied in different parts of the western world and Asian countries; however, very few of the researchers have paid attention towards violence against men [3,4]; Hines et al. [5] it is commonly claimed that men are traditionally viewed as being physically stronger than women, therefore, they under-report their victimization due to barriers like embarrassment and masculine ego [6]. The fact that men are victims of IPV, from their female partners, has been identified for the last thirty years [5]; these victims often face the humiliation of being laughed at, accused, belittled, or ridiculed, due to which they do not report their victimization [6]. Studies have identified equal levels of exposure to intimate partner violence among men and women [7]; the rates and frequencies of violence enacted by women are often similar to that of their men partners [8]. Such symmetry signifies a weak association of gender with perpetration of IPV. However, men’s ego has been developed by the society in such a way that their reporting of violence is generally considered a social stigma. When men attempt to report DV against them, most of the times they are not trusted; instead, they are laughed at and ridiculed for the notion that they are beaten by their wives


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (Spring 2019) ◽  
pp. 157-173
Author(s):  
Kashif Siddique ◽  
Rubeena Zakar ◽  
Ra’ana Malik ◽  
Naveeda Farhat ◽  
Farah Deeba

The aim of this study is to find the association between Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and contraceptive use among married women in Pakistan. The analysis was conducted by using cross sectional secondary data from every married women of reproductive age 15-49 years who responded to domestic violence module (N = 3687) of the 2012-13 Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey. The association between contraceptive use (outcome variable) and IPV was measured by calculating unadjusted odds ratios and adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals using simple binary logistic regression and multivariable binary logistic regression. The result showed that out of 3687 women, majority of women 2126 (57.7%) were using contraceptive in their marital relationship. Among total, 1154 (31.3%) women experienced emotional IPV, 1045 (28.3%) women experienced physical IPV and 1402 (38%) women experienced both physical and emotional IPV together respectively. All types of IPV was significantly associated with contraceptive use and women who reported emotional IPV (AOR 1.44; 95% CI 1.23, 1.67), physical IPV (AOR 1.41; 95% CI 1.20, 1.65) and both emotional and physical IPV together (AOR 1.49; 95% CI 1.24, 1.72) were more likely to use contraceptives respectively. The study revealed that women who were living in violent relationship were more likely to use contraceptive in Pakistan. Still there is a need for women reproductive health services and government should take initiatives to promote family planning services, awareness and access to contraceptive method options for women to reduce unintended or mistimed pregnancies that occurred in violent relationships.


2021 ◽  
pp. 107780122097880
Author(s):  
Laura Navarro-Mantas ◽  
Soledad de Lemus ◽  
Jesús L. Megías

Violence against women (VAW) is currently one of the main problems in El Salvador, which leads the ranking of femicides in the world. We conducted the first national survey on VAW in El Salvador following the World Health Organization (WHO) methodology, to determine the impact of violence on women’s mental health ( N = 1,274). Women who had experienced intimate partner violence showed significantly poorer mental health and more suicidal ideations. Common mental disorders were significantly associated with the experience of all forms of violence, after adjusting for sociodemographic variables and stressful life experiences. The results are discussed in connection with the primary care protocols and the design of public policies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
M Caicedo Roa ◽  
L Gabrielle Dalaqua ◽  
P Filizola ◽  
R Cordeiro

Abstract Introduction Violence against women is a public health problem with severe consequences. Most women in situations of domestic violence are emotionally involved and/or economically dependent of their intimate partners contributing to the perpetuation and acceptance of violence. Objectives 1) To characterize the women who join the Reference and Support Center for Women (Ceamo) in Campinas, Southeast Brazil. 2) To measure the quality of life in women victims of intimate partner violence 3) To determine the risk of feminicide. Methods The Ceamo is a public specialized service from the mayor of Campinas, it provides psychological, social and legal guidance to women in situations of gender violence. Inclusion criteria: Women attending Ceamo services, speaking Portuguese, age ≥18 years old and having experienced intimate partner violence. Measure instruments: Danger assessment Scale and WHOQOL-BREF. Results During the 11 months of the study, 78 new users were recruited. Average age 38.3 years old, mostly married/stable union, most of them with children (88%). 64% of women do not work and 36% live with the abusive partner. Prevalent types of violence suffered during by the victims in the last year were psychological n = 76, physical n = 62, moral n = 54 and sexual n = 23. The domain most affected in the assessment of quality of life was the environment (average 42% /100%) and psychological domain (42%/100%). 49% of women were classified with increased risk, 22% with severe risk and 1% with extreme risk of femicide. The questions with the most positive answers were those related to believing that the partner can kill her (77%), jealous of the partner (76%) and controlling behavior (73%), being followed/spied by the partner (67%) and threat death (65%). Conclusions The service in general receive very vulnerable women with low perception of their own quality of life, precarious material conditions and high risk of femicide. Key messages The women in domestic violence situation attended by the Ceamo service are at high risk of femicide. Service users have very low perception of their quality of life and poor social conditions.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document