Intimate partner violence and household food insecurity among married women in Soddo Zuria Woreda, SNNPR

Abstract

Background: Both intimate partner violence and food insecurity are becoming the most critical public and social health problems in developing nations. There are compelling reasons that link food insecurity to partner violence in the setting where both are common. Yet, little is known about the association with of food insecurity with intimate partner violence in Soddo Zuria Woreda, SNNPR Objective: To assess the magnitude of intimate partner violence and its associated factor among married women in Soddo Zuria Woreda, Wolaita Zone, SNNPR Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study design among 15 randomly selected kebeles was conducted from March 15 to 30 2014. A total of 845 married women were selected by using systematic random sampling technique. The data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16. Data were entered, cleaned and descriptive and inferential statistics were computed. Both bivariate and multivariate regression analyses were done. A 95% confidence interval and a P-value ≤ 0.05 was considered to determine statistically significant association between independent and dependent variables. Result: The life time and 12 months prevalence of intimate partner violence was 68.9% and 66.4%, respectively. About 65.4%, 55.7% and 53.9% women reported physical, sexual and psychosocial violence, respectively. The magnitude of household food insecurity was 60.1% in the previous 30 days. Variables such as household food insecurity [AOR=3.6, 95%CI=2.5, 5.2], women who had maternal intimate partner violence [AOR=1.9, 95%CI= 1.4, 2.7], being pregnant [AOR =1.7, 95%CI = 1.2, 2.4], age of the partner [AOR=.24, 95CI=.127,.46], male headed household [AOR =2.2, 95%CI=1.2,4.2], alcohol consumption by husband [AOR =1.9,95%CI= 1.3,2.6] were significantly associated with intimate partner violence. Conclusion: The finding of this study indicated that intimate partner violence was found to be high in the study area. There are factors associated with intimate partner violence. Thus, any public health interventions designed in the study to avoid intimate partner violence should take into account improvement of household food security status and there is need for public education on intimate partner violence prevention thorough behavioral change strategies.