Intimate partner violence during pregnancy among women attending antenatal clinic in Southern Nigeria

Abstract

Context: IPV against women is associated with immediate and long-term adverse health outcomes for women and children, both directly and indirectly. This is particularly worse in the pregnancy where the condition of the woman makes her vulnerable to adverse outcomes. Aims: To assess the prevalence of IPV among pregnant women and determine the factors associated with it. Settings and Design: A cross-sectional study was carried out between November 2017 and March 2018 among pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in the Southern part of Nigeria. Subjects and Methods: A pre-tested structured questionnaire adapted from the WHO multi-country study on domestic violence was used for an interview among the 529 participants. Statistical analysis used: The data were cleaned, coded and analyzed using statistical IBM SPSS Statistics version 21.0. Results: The prevalence of physical, sexual, controlling and emotional IPV during pregnancy in this study was 2.1%, 3.6%, 5.1% and 11.9%, respectively. The overall IPV during pregnancy was 15.5%. Respondents who had higher education (AOR: 4.428, 95% CI: 1.729-11.342), made less than 4 ANC clinic visits (AOR: 5.543, 95% CI: 2.706-11.352) and those with partners in unskilled occupation (AOR: 3.065, 95% CI: 1.115-8.426) were more likely to experience IPV during pregnancy. In addition, respondents with professional or skilled occupations and those of high social class were less likely to experience IPV during pregnancy, (AOR: 0.476, 95% CI: 0.272-0.833) and (AOR: 0.157, 95% CI: 0.053-0.467), respectively. Conclusions: Our findings underscore the importance of empowering the woman and indeed, the home and improving her social status.