Abstract:
Background: The issue of violence and specifically, interpersonal violence has recently
been assessed by the World Health Organization as a worldwide public health priority given
its incidence and prevalence throughout the world. Communities are struggling to
understand and solve the problems of violence.
Objective: To assess prevalence and related factors of intimate partner violence against
women in Gambella town, Gambella regional state, Ethiopia.
Methods: A community based cross-sectional survey was conducted in March 2014 using
questionnaire adapted from WHO multi-country study. A sample of 422 ever married
women reproductive age was randomly selected. Data was cleaned, explored and
summarized after exporting to spss version 16.0. Descriptive statistics was done to describe
each variable. Bivariate analysis was carried out to asses association between the dependent
and each of independent variables and independent variables with p-value ˂ 0.25 was
considered as candidate for multivariable analysis and multivariable analysis was performed.
Statistical significance was described by odds ratio (AOR with 95% confidence interval) and
p- value of 0.05 was considered as cut off point for statistical significance.
Result: Forty five percent of the women were experienced at least one episode of intimate
partner violence in one form or another way in their life time. Also 36.3 % of them had
experienced at least one episode of intimate partner violence in past 12 month. Respondents
that reported witnessed family violence (1.111,CI 1.027-1.201), husband drink alcohol
(AOR 2.059 CI,1.046-4.054) that drink alcohol (AOR 2.083 CI 1.126-3.855), that their
husband use drugs (AOR 2.218 CI 1.280-3.843) and that have no formal education (AOR
2.079, CI 1.062-4.067) were more likely to report intimate partner violence.
Conclusion and recommendation: This study found that intimate partner violence was
prevalent around this area. Witnessed family violence, spousal alcohol use, husband drug
use and women education are factors associated with intimate partner violence. Therefore it
needs urgent attention by government, all stakeholders, and professionals to alleviate this
situation.
