Intimate Partner Violence and Symptoms of Sexually Transmitted Infections: Are the Women from Low Socio-economic Strata in Bangladesh at Increased Risk

Abstract

There is little research on whether women who are either poor or illiterate and have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) have a unique risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Most such research concerns families displaced by wars and conflicts. Therefore, we aimed to further this important area of inquiry by (1) addressing whether an association exists between experiences of physical and/or sexual IPV within the past year and symptoms of STI and (2) exploring the relationship between low socio-economic status and IPV and the relative roles they play as obstacles to reducing women's risk of STI in a nationally representative sample of Bangladesh. This paper used data from the 2007 Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey. The analyses were based on the responses of 4,195 currently married women. Exposure was determined from women's experiences of physical and sexual IPV within the past year. Genital sores and genital discharge were used as proxy outcome variables of the symptoms of STI. Descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression analysis were used in the study. Experience of any physical and/or sexual IPV were associated with genital sores (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.79; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.28-2.51) and genital discharge (AOR 1.90, 95% CI 1.42-2.53). Severity of physical IPV appeared to have more profound consequences on the outcome measured. Findings also demonstrated that for the risk of STI, women at the nexus of poverty or illiteracy and IPV were not more uniquely disadvantaged. The results suggest that for the risk of STI, the negative effect of having experienced IPV extends across all socio-economic backgrounds and is not limited to women at either at the nexus of poverty or illiteracy and IPV. Findings underscore the calls for protecting women from all forms of physical and sexual violence from their husbands as a part of interventions to reduce the risk of STI.