Physical wife abuse : a study among Saudi women attending primary health care centers

الملخص EN

Background: Violence against women in Saudi Arabia is being recognized as an increasing public health problem in recent years.

However, research studies are lacking in the region.

We measured the prevalence of physical wife abuse and its association with certain demographic and bio-psychosocial factors. Subjects and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on Saudi ever-married women (16-60 years) attending Primary health care centers in Madina Al Munawara.

Data was collected by interviewing women in a private setting of 16 Primary health centers randomly chosen for the study.

A modified version of the “Conflict Tactic Scale-R” was used to measure the magnitude and severity of physical wife abuse. Results: Of the 689 eligible study participants, 25.7% had been physically abused in the past year and 27% during their lifetime.

Significant predictors of physical wife abuse were “wife lived with extended family members” (OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.16-3.43), “positive history of spouse abuse in wife’s family” (OR 2.5, 95% CI 1.44- 4.25), “positive history of spouse abuse in husband’s family” (OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.08-3.3), “husband used narcotic drugs” (OR 10.2, 95% CI 4.87-21.58), “husband had mood swings” (OR 1.7, 95% CI 1.08-2.7), and “wife did not pray regularly” (OR 0.4, 95% CI 0.24-0.77). Conclusions: Physical wife abuse was found to be an important public health problem in the local region and needs the attention of social welfare and health care planners.

Family related factors and personality traits of husband were strong predictors of wife abuse.

Further studies on this subject are recommended in Saudi Arabia