Abstract
Background: Violence against pregnant women continues to constitute topical issue of global public health concern. This is especially as a result of the double risk of the violence not only on the pregnant woman perse but also on the unborn fetus. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of domestic violence, describes the socio-demographic characteristics of the victims and identify the possible risk factors for domestic violence among pregnant women attending the ante natal clinic of primary health care centre, West Itam, sub-urban area in Itu local government area of Akwa Ibom State, South-south Nigeria. This was a cross-sectional descriptive study involving 200 pregnant women who attended the ante natal clinic of primary health-care centre, West Itam, Itu, between March and June, 2017, recruited through convenient sampling. A pretested semi structured interviewer administered questionnaire was used to obtain information on socio-demographic characteristics, occurrence of domestic violence, risk factors for domestic violence, reactions and views on domestic violence among the pregnant women. The data obtained were analysed using SSPS version 22.0. The mean age of the subjects were 27.08(± 7.32) years. Result obtained showed that 72 (36.0%) of the 200 pregnant women were abused in the current pregnancy, 73.6% of them suffered physical violence while husbands were the commonest culprits who inflicted the violence. While 31.1% of the abused respondents kept the violence secret, 44.4% of them viewed domestic violence as always excusable. Excessive alcohol use (27.8%) was the commonest risk factor for domestic violence among the male partners of the pregnant women. Only ethnicity had statistically significant association with domestic violence (p=0.026). Due to the high prevalence rate of domestic violence in the study, it is recommended that health care professionals attending to pregnant women in ante natal clinic should thoroughly screen them for domestic violence.
Keywords: Domestic violence, pregnant women, Itu, Southern Nigeria.
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Corresponding Author
Victory Iyanam
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DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v6i1.56
