Domestic Violence During Pregnancy and Women's Health-Related Quality of Life.

Maryam Gharacheh,Simin Montazeri,Shahdokht Azadi,Zohre Khalajinia,Nooredin Mohammadi

doi:10.5539/gjhs.v8n2p27

Maryam Gharacheh, Simin Montazeri + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5539/gjhs.v8n2p27

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Abstract

Domestic violence during pregnancy is a major health problem with significant psychological and physical impairments for pregnant women. To assess the relationship between domestic violence during pregnancy and women’s health-related quality of life (HRQoL), a cross-sectional study was conducted on 341 postnatal women who referred to urban health care centers in Gachsaran, Islamic Republic of Iran. Domestic violence was assessed using a questionnaire modified from the Abuse Assessment Screen (AAS), and Iranian version of Short Form-36 questionnaire was used to assess women’s HRQoL. The findings of the study showed 44.5% of women reported experiencing domestic violence during pregnancy. All the SF-36 subscales including both physical and mental health dimensions scored lower in the abused women compared to the non-abused women, and differences between the groups in the six subscales of SF-36 except ‘physical functioning’ and ‘bodily pain’ were statistically significant (P<.05). These results suggest that domestic violence during pregnancy is associated with poor HRQoL in abused women.

Highlights

Domestic violence is a global social and health problem, and has been recognized as one of the most common forms of gender-based violence (Mavrikiou, Apostolidou, & Parlalis, 2014; Stöckl et al, 2013)
To assess the relationship between domestic violence during pregnancy and women's health-related quality of life (HRQoL), a cross-sectional study was conducted on 341 postnatal women who referred to urban health care centers in Gachsaran, Islamic Republic of Iran
These results suggest that domestic violence during pregnancy is associated with poor HRQoL in abused women

Summary

Introduction

Domestic violence is a global social and health problem, and has been recognized as one of the most common forms of gender-based violence (Mavrikiou, Apostolidou, & Parlalis, 2014; Stöckl et al, 2013). Physical and sexual violence continues during pregnancy (Akyüz et al, 2012; Devries et al, 2010). A wide range of prevalence rates of domestic violence during pregnancy has been estimated from 3 to 30 percent (Van Parys, Verhamme, Temmerman, & Verstraelen, 2014). In Iran a high prevalence of domestic violence has been reported. Iranian studies have revealed that 60.6 percent of women experience multiple types of domestic violence during pregnancy (Abadi, Ghazinour, Nojomi, & Richter, 2012; Jahanfar & Malekzadegan, 2007)

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