Pulavarthi Sabita, Mathiyalagen Prakash, Kollipaka Rupavani, Jayamoorthy Karthiga
BACKGROUND Domestic violence is largely an unaddressed public health problem globally, which can have a detrimental impact on the health of the mother and baby. It is a reflection of neglected and deprioritized health care of women during pregnancy. We wanted to determine the prevalence of domestic violence during pregnancy and the possible risk factors associated with it among the pregnant attending an antenatal clinic in a tertiary care hospital. METHODS A facility based longitudinal study was conducted among 233 pregnant women attending the Out Patient Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. A pre-validated standard questionnaire (abuse assessment screen) was used to screen the pregnant women for domestic violence and a semi-structured proforma to collect the socio-demographic characteristics was also used. Confidentiality was maintained for the data collected. Data was analysed using SPSS Version 20. RESULTS Mean age of the pregnant women was 25.02+4.01 years. The prevalence of domestic violence during the first trimester of pregnancy assessed using Abuse Assessment Screen (AAS) questionnaire was found to be 35.62%. In the univariate analysis, the significant factors associated with domestic violence during pregnancy were- different social class, poor social support, gender preference and husband’s alcohol addiction. However, logistic regression analysis revealed that husband’s alcohol addiction (aOR 2.59, 95% CI 1.36-4.95), poor social support during pregnancy (aOR 3.42, 95% CI 1.64-7.13) and gender preference (aOR 3.90, 95% CI 2.12-7.16) were the statistically significant factors. CONCLUSIONS Domestic violence during pregnancy is a public health problem due to its high prevalence. Most of the risk factors are easily preventable by strict implementation of acts to prevent domestic violence against women. The study also recommends a routine screening for domestic violence during pregnancy in the antenatal clinic.
