Study of domestic violence against women attending out patient clinics in Assiut University hospitals

Abstract EN

This study aimed to identify the magnitude of domestic violence and to assess the underlying factors for it among women seeking medical care from outpatient clinics in Assiut University Hospitals.

The study was conducted in four outpatient clinics (antenatal, gynecological, family planning and sterility clinics) affiliated to Assiut University Hospitals.

The studied sample age ranged from 18-49 years.

The total number of the women was 1000.

Two tools for data collection were used a quantitative (structured interview questionaire) used to collect data such as socio-demographic data, history of violence, underlying causes, health effects of violence upon women health status and a qualitative (FGDs) focus group discussions which utilized to gain insight and identify views of women regarding domestic violence.

Data was collected during the period from October 2003 to September 2004.

The results of the study revealed that 54.2 % of wives and one third of (34.1 %) of husbands were illiterate, while (21 %) of wives and (31.3 %) of husbands graduated from secondary school.

The vast majority of the women were housewives, while 25.4 % of husbands were employees.

Regarding the residence, more than three quarters 78.2% of the study sample lives in rural areas, compared to 21.8 % in urban areas.

Concerning the history of violence against the wives, 41.3 % of the studied sample experienced one or more types of violence.

Physical violence was reported in the form of pushing, hitting, pushing on the floor and pulling hair in a percentage of 45 %, 82.8 %, 41.2 % and 35.8 %, respectively.

As regard to the psychological abuse, the results show that 89.3 % of wives faced violence verbally abused.

The most important causes of domestic violence stated by women were husband relative's problems (33.1 %), financial problems (21 %), and household duties problems (e.

g late preparing food, poor house hygiene) (20.8 %).

Concerning the psychosocial impact of violence upon wives health, 45 % of wives faced violence not tell anyone about abuse and keep it in her internal feeling, while 30.5 % of them had a feeling of loneliness.

A statistically significant difference was found between husband education, wife education and the presence of violence It was observed that as the education level of them increase the occurrence of violence became lesser.

On the other hand, the results of the present study revealed that there is statistically significant difference between wife's age and violence, it was founded that about one third of wives who faced violence, their age ranged between 20-24 years and about 24.9 % of them their age ranged between 25-29 years.

Results of the qualitative part revealed that, women who don't face any type of violence since marriage stated that, love and respect between husbands was the key for being enjoy a stable and happy life till now.

Based on the finding of the present study, it can be concluded that, domestic violence was found as a public health problem which has many consequences on health, physically and emotionally.

The study recommended that health education programs should be directed toward increasing awareness of people about the problem of domestic violence and its effect upon family health and more studies should be directed toward studying the magnitude and prevalence of domestic violence.

Thus community health care workers and other influential health providers can take the lead in introducing awareness and behavior change in the community.