Abstract
Intimate partner violence (IPV), as the most common form of violence against women, is recognised as a fundamental violation of women’s human rights and a significant public health concern worldwide. IPV is also a widespread phenomenon in Africa where the associated health challenges can be particularly serious due to fragile healthcare systems. To date, there is no systematic research on IPV and its association with healthcare use among adult women in Angola. Therefore, we conducted the present study on IPV among women of childbearing age (15–49 years) in Angola by analysing cross-sectional data from Angola Demographic and Health Survey (2015–2016). The objectives were to assess the predictors of IPV and its association with healthcare use. IPV was assessed by women’s experience of physical, emotional and sexual violence, and healthcare use was assessed by self-reported medical visits during last 12 months. Logistic regression methods were used to analyse the data. Our findings showed that more than two-fifths of the women reported experiencing any IPV (41.1%, 95%Confidence Interval (CI)= 38.7 to 43.6), with physical IPV (32.3%, 95%CI = 30.3 to 34.5) being the most prevalent followed by emotional (27.3%, 95%CI = 25.3 to 29.4), and sexual IPV (7.4%, 95%I = 6.6 to 8.4). In the multivariate analysis, women’s religious background, husband’s alcohol drinking, spousal age difference, and frequency of attending church appeared to be the most important predictors of IPV. Nonpregnant women who experienced emotional [OR = 1.476, 95%CI = 1.154,1.887] and sexual IPV [Odds Ratio (OR) = 1.393, 95%CI = 1.068,1.816] had increase odds of healthcare visits during last 12 months. In conclusion, our findings suggest a noticeably high prevalence of IPV among Angolan women. Those who experience emotional and sexual IPV might be at higher odds of suffering from medical conditions and should be given special attention in primary care settings.
Highlights
Intimate partner violence (IPV), generally referred to as abusive actions such as physical, sexual, and psychological aggression as well as other coercive acts by a current or former intimate partner, is the most common form of violence against women (VAW) [1,2,3,4,5]
About one-third of the women reported experiencing any physical (32.3%, 95% CI = 30.3 to 34.5), more than a quarter reported any emotional IPV (27.3%, 95% CI = 25.3 to 29.4), and less than one-tenth reported sexual IPV (7.4%, 95% CI = 6.6 to 8.4)
The World Health Organization has estimated that the prevalence of physical or sexual IPV in the African region is as high as 36.6% compared with the global average of 30% [29]
Summary
Intimate partner violence (IPV), generally referred to as abusive actions such as physical, sexual, and psychological aggression as well as other coercive acts by a current or former intimate partner, is the most common form of violence against women (VAW) [1,2,3,4,5]. Challenges 2019, 10, 21 research on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence, the lifetime prevalence of experiencing physical or sexual IPV among ever-partnered women was 15 to 71 percent [10]. Women ever experiencing IPV are more likely to report complex health issues like unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, musculoskeletal pain, physical disability, substance abuse, as well as psychological morbidities such as depression, anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [14,15,16,17,18,19,20]. The vast range of health impacts of IPV can incur women a substantial amount of direct and indirect costs in the form of medical and nonmedical services and loss of labour productivity. The study reported that the corresponding costs in the Great Britain were £23 billion in the same year
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