Appraisal of Intimate Partner Violence and associated factors among Pregnant Women in Nagele, East Borena, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia,

Abstract

Background: Intimate partner violence, especially during pregnancy is an important public health and human rights issue associated with fatal and non-fatal adverse health outcomes for the pregnant woman and her baby. The paucity of data, seeming urgency, and significance of this topic warrants the attention of all stakeholders of health and relationship matters Objective: This study aims to determine the magnitude of intimate partner violence among pregnant mothers and associated factors Since there is inadequate data and intimate partner violence is common in this study area, we needed to study this topic. Materials and Methods: A facility-based cross-sectional study was carried out from Oct 15/2020 –Dec 15/2020. Face-to-face interviews were conducted using a pre-tested structured questionnaire. The collected data were entered into Epi Info version 7.2.1.0 and then exported into the statistical package for social science version 20 for analysis. Descriptive statistics were conducted. Bivariate analysis was done to select candidate variables for multivariate analysis. Finally, variables that had significant associations with intimate violence during pregnancy were identified based on p-value<0.05 and AOR with a 95% CI. Result: About 44.3% (95% CI 44.2-44.4) of pregnant women had faced at least one form of intimate partner violence during the current pregnancy. Psychological violence (29.1%), sexual violence (24.4%), and physical violence (23.9%) were the forms of violence the respondents encountered. Respondents who were primary educated (AOR 2.99, 95%CI 1.23–7.25), secondary educated (AOR 2.36, 1.047-5.34), respondents in the age group of 26-34years (AOR 0.20 95%CI 0.065–0.64), and age group of >=35years (AOR 0.26, 95%CI 0.09-0.77). Respondents with a history of miscarriage, abortion and/ stillbirth (AOR 0.5,95%CI 0.32-0.78), respondents who accepted their partner had the right to beat them(AOR 1.83, 95% CI 1.82-2.82), respondents whose partners were in the age group of 40-49 years(AOR 2.22,95%CI 1.10-4.47), tertiary educated (AOR 0.38, 95%CI 0.20-0.71), had a history of fighting with other men (AOR 1.77 95%CI 1.14- 2.75) were factors significantly associated with IPV during pregnancy. Conclusion: The prevalence of intimate violence in the Negele Borena town selected public health facility is among the highest. Policymakers need to consider screening for IPV in the antenatal care service as one component. It is also better to include IPV screening as one component of the community health extension package Keywords: Intimate partner violence, pregnancy, Negele Borena, Oromia,