Domestic Violence Against Women by Their Intimate Partner: A Cross Sectional Analysis on Amalgamation of Women's Individual Health Status and Various Risk Factors in Indian

Abstract

Background: Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a severe public health issue, and nowadays, it has reached with an acute state in the society. Using a sample of 62,090 ever-married Indian women, this study investigated the impact of women’s individual health condition and various factors associated with respondent’s household, personal, and partner’s socio-economic, demographic & cultural risk behaviors on women’s experience of IPV offense. Method: Multivariable binary logistic regression method (Main effect & Interaction effect) was applied to evaluate the extent of association of risk factors at various levels with the past year's experience of any form of IPV. In the past year prevalence of any form of IPV among Indian ever-married women (n = 62,090) was 32.7 %. Findings: Selected Household-level characteristics, women’s health condition and Individual-level characteristics, and partner’s characteristics are significantly associated with the past-year prevalence of any form of IPV offense against women. Risk behaviors such as conservative family ideology, addiction to alcohol consumption, child marriage, education, women’s financial autonomy, chronic health illness (AOR: 1.43; CI: 1.33-1.53), partner’s domineering attitude, and unemployment were identified as the most important risk factors. Interaction analysis between residential places and selected covariates showed a difference in likelihood between rural and urban parts. Interpretation: Actions to prevent and eliminate IPV offences in India demand collaborative efforts of the national government and public agencies, and local government. Improvement in household level wellbeing, a woman’s personal and partner’s level characteristic is very much necessary to minimize the violence against women by their intimate partner. Funding: None to declare. Declaration of Interest: None to declare.