Prevalence and factors associated with intimate partner violence during Covid-19 pandemic in rural Samarahan, Sarawak

Abstract

The prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) has increased since the onset of COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 336 married women were randomly selected and interviewed face-to-face using a structured questionnaire adapted from the World Health Organisation (WHO) multi-country questionnaire. The main objective was to determine the prevalence and associated factors of IPV during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis found an increase in IPV prevalence from 10.7% before Movement Control Order (MCO) to 14.9% during MCO. Multivariate analysis (MVA) revealed unemployed partners (AOR = 10.70), smoking partners (AOR = 5.36), partners' previous experience of violence (AOR = 1.05), partners' positive controlling behaviour (AOR = 0.95), and informal social control (AOR = 0.97) appeared to be significant predictors of IPV before MCO. However, the unemployed partners were 15.59 times more likely to perpetrate IPV during MCO. The probability of partners’ previous experience of violence, partners’ positive controlling behaviour, and informal social control was almost the same as before MCO. The increase in IPV prevalence during the COVID-19 pandemic had an unintended impact, especially in gender-based violence, which requires a comprehensive programme to mitigate the aforementioned situation.