Abstract:
Background: Domestic violence during pregnancy is an attack that puts not just one, but two
lives at risk. The overall objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of domestic violence
and its predictors among pregnant women in Manna Woreda, Jimma Zone, South West Ethiopia.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among 662 pregnant women in manna
Woreda, Jimma zone south west Ethiopia from march 25, 2011 to April 10, 2011. We used
Simple Random sampling method to select the pregnant women included in the study. A
structured interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect the quantitative data and
Focus Group Discussion and In-depth-interviews were undertaken to capture qualitative data.
Date was entered into SPSS for windows version 16.0, edited, cleaned and analyzed.Descriptive
statistics (mean or median) were calculated for continuous variables and percent for categorical
variables. Bivariate and multiple logistic regression analyses were used to identify the predictors.
We present the results using odds ratio and 95% confidence intervals. The qualitative data were
analyzed manually using thematic framework and triangulated with quantitative findings.
Results: A total of 611 study subjects participated giving a response rate of 92.29%. The overall
prevalence of domestic violence was 68.9%. Prevalence of physical, sexual and psychological
violence were, 242(40.6%), 144(24.2%) and 187(31.4%), respectively. Physical violence was
associated with alcohol consumption of husbands (Adj. OR =0.65, 95%CI, 0.44,0.95) and
husband desires of current pregnancy( Adj. OR= 1.55(1.09,2.20) and sexual violence was
associated with educational status of pregnant women( Adj. OR= 3.3, 95%CI, 0.44,0.91) and
alcohol consumption of husbands( Adj. OR= 2.8, 95%CI, 0.19,0.43). predictors of psychological
violence were husbands desires of current pregnancy (Adj. OR= 4.7, 95%CI, 0.32, 0.72) and
alcohol consumption of husband(Adj. OR= 4.8, 95%CI, 0.40, 0.92). Conclusion: prevalence of
domestic violence among pregnant women was very high. Educational status, alcohol
consumption and desires of pregnancy were the risk factor of domestic violence.
Recommendation Health education programs should be directed toward increasing awareness
on domestic violence and health workers and other influential health providers should take lead
in introducing awareness and behavioural change in the community and further research using a
longitudinal design to prove the current hypothesis is necessary.
