Abstract
BackgroundWith the increased vulnerability during pregnancy, domestic violence (DV) is a serious threat to the physical and mental health of pregnant women, making it a significant issue in public health initiatives. In China, family is of great significance to pregnant women, but few scholars have focused specifically on the relationship between the family factors of pregnant women and DV. This study aimed to explore the prevalence and association between family factors and DV among women in late pregnancy, to provide evidence for the prevention of domestic violence during pregnancy.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted from July–October, 2019 among pregnant women in urban communities of Hengyang City, Hunan Province, China. A total of 813 participants were included by a multi-staged cluster random sampling method. DV was assessed by the Abuse Assessment Screen Questionnaire (AAS). A multivariate binary logistic regression model was used to evaluate the relationship between family factors and DV.ResultsUltimately, 127 (15.62%) participants were identified as victims of DV. After adjustment, the potential risk factors of DV were tensions between their mother-in-law and other family members (OR: 2.85; 95% CI: 1.29 to 6.30 and OR: 3.30; 95% CI: 1.57 to 6.93), medium household debt (OR: 2.17; 95% CI: 1.18 to 4.00), middle and low family APGARI (OR: 2.01; 95% CI: 1.30 to 3.13 and OR: 4.01; 95% CI: 2.09 to 7.69).ConclusionsIn summary, women in late pregnancy were at higher risk of DV in the family with tensions, medium household debt and family dysfunction, which may help medical personnel intervene in cases of domestic violence against pregnant women in a reasonable and timely manner.
Highlights
With the increased vulnerability during pregnancy, domestic violence (DV) is a serious threat to the physical and mental health of pregnant women, making it a significant issue in public health initiatives
Some researchers found that pregnant women were 2.7 to 3.9 times more likely to suffer from physical violence and twice as likely to suffer from sexual violence compared with women who are not pregnant [7]
What’s more, because of the increased vulnerability women experience during pregnancy, Domestic violence (DV) will do harm to physical and mental health [8, 9], and may cause adverse pregnancy outcomes, which seriously affect the health of the generation [10]
Summary
With the increased vulnerability during pregnancy, domestic violence (DV) is a serious threat to the physical and mental health of pregnant women, making it a significant issue in public health initiatives. This study aimed to explore the prevalence and association between family factors and DV among women in late pregnancy, to provide evidence for the prevention of domestic violence during pregnancy. Due to the different national cultures and the tools of assessment, studies conducted in pregnant women have reported that the prevalence of DV varies from 0.9 to 20% [11]. A review including 18 studies from 1996 to 2009 reported that the prevalence of mental violence during pregnancy was 1.5 to 36% and that of sexual violence was 1.0 to 3.9% [20]
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