Impact of intimate partner violence on ever-married women and utilization of antenatal care services in Tanzania

Abstract

Background and objectives The Sub-Saharan Africa region is considered as one of the deprived regions of the world and women from this part of the world suffered most from intimate partner violence (IPV). This study was undertaken to assess the impact of intimate partner violence on utilization of antenatal care (ANC) services among the ever-married women of Tanzania. Materials and methods This was a descriptive cross-sectional study and the data used in this research was extracted from the Tanzania Demographic Health Survey 2015–16. A total of 13,266 women were interviewed. Results The mean age of the respondents was 28.69 years. About 74% women visited ANC services more than 4 times. The IPV in the present study among pregnant women who sought ANC was 31.3%. The socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents and respondents’ husbands were found to be significantly associated with IPV. Logistic regression results indicated that the middle-aged adult women (35–49 years age group) were identified having lower odds of IPV (odds ratio: 0.807, 95% CI: 0.693–0.940, P Conclusion IPV is one of the main challenges to women's health and well-being during pregnancy period. Proper design and implementation of community-based interventions to support pregnant women to seek ANC services and to raise awareness regarding IVP are advocated.