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Intimate Partner Violence and Reproductive Wastage: The Case of Egypt
Abstract
Intimate partner violence is considered a violation of basic human rights and a risk factor for several health outcomes. While a number of studies investigated the impact of intimate partner violence on both women and infant's health in many countries across the world, very few studies focused on this issue in the Arab region. This study examined the associations between having ever experienced physical intimate partner violence among Egyptian women and reproductive wastage. The analysis was conducted using data from the Egyptian Demographic Health Survey 2005 (EDHS). The survey contained data on all household (HH) members from a multi-stage sample of 21,972 HH with response rate of 98 percent, and 19,474 women of age 15-49 years with a response rate of 99 percent. The violence questions were asked to one eligible woman in a sub-sample of one third of the households selected for anemia testing. The analysis for this study included only ever pregnant married women in that sample (5,161 women). Analysis was conducted using logistic regression. The main outcome variable was whether the women had ever experiencing miscarriage, spontaneous abortion or still birth. Independent variables included: age of respondent, educational level, residence, ever use of intrauterine device (IUD), and consanguinity. Results indicated that after adjusting for these variables, ever experience of physical intimate partner violence was significantly associated with ever experiencing reproductive wastage among ever pregnant married women in Egypt (OR=1.19, C.I.=1.01 , 1.40). This study showed that IPV was significantly associated with reproductive wastage among ever pregnant Egyptian women. IPV remains a public health and human rights concern affecting a considerable number of ever married Egyptian women who have ever experienced such abuse.
Discipline
Medicine/Health
Geographic Area
Egypt
Sub Area
Health