Prevalence of Domestic Violence and Associated Factors among Antenatal Care Attending Women at Robe Hospital, Southeast Ethiopia

Abstract

Introduction: Globally domestic violence against women is one of the social and public health problem occurring during pregnancy in the form of sexual, physical, or psychological violence imposed by the current or former male intimate partner. Therefore, this survey aims to assess the prevalence of domestic violence and associated factors among antenatal attending women at Robe hospital, southeast Ethiopia, 2019. Method: An institutional based cross-sectional study design was conducted from April 25/2019 to May 20/2019 among 385 antenatal care-attending women at Robe hospital. Data was collected using face-to-face interview. Bivariate analysis was carried out to examine the associations between independent variable and domestic violence during pregnancy. Those variables with p-values of 0.05 or less were entered into multivariable logistic regression to manage confounding variables. Finally, adjusted odds ratio with 95% of confidence interval and significance p value<0.05 was used to examine the association between the independent and dependent variables. Result: Out of 385 study participants involved in the interview 375 completed the interview making the response rate as 97.4%. The overall prevalence of domestic violence in our study area is 24.5%. Partner alcohol intake, having unplanned pregnancy and having unwanted pregnancy are factors significantly associated with domestic violence among antenatal care attendants. Conclusion and recommendation: The prevalence of domestic violence among ANC attending women at Robe hospital is high. Having partner who takes alcohol, having unplanned pregnancy and unwanted pregnancy are the factors significantly associated with domestic violence during pregnancy among antenatal care attending women. In collaboration with stakeholders, the zonal health department has to mitigate domestic violence during pregnancy through educating women how to prevent unplanned and unwanted pregnancy.