Intimate partner violence against women in Nigeria: a multilevel study investigating the effect of women’s status and community norms

Background Intimate partner violence (IPV) against women has been recognised as a public health problem with far-reaching consequences for the physical, reproductive, and mental health of women. The ecological framework portrays intimate partner violence as a multifaceted phenomenon, demonstrating t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMC women's health Vol. 18; no. 1; pp. 136 - 17
Main Authors: Benebo, Faith Owunari, Schumann, Barbara, Vaezghasemi, Masoud
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London BioMed Central 09.08.2018
BioMed Central Ltd
Springer Nature B.V
BMC
Subjects:
Analysis
Community
Community norms
Cross-sectional studies
Domestic violence
Empowerment
Equal rights
Gender equity
Gynecology
Health problems
Health status
Health surveys
Human rights
Internet
Intimate partner violence
Maternal and Child Health
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Men
Mental health
Multilevel analysis
Murders & murder attempts
Nigeria
Norms
Power
Public health
Random effects
Reproductive Medicine
Research Article
Risk factors
Sexually transmitted diseases
Society
Violence
Violence against women
Women
Women's public health issues
Womens health
women’s status
Nigeria
Africa
Community norms
women’s status
Multilevel analysis
Nigeria
Intimate partner violence
ISSN:1472-6874, 1472-6874
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Background Intimate partner violence (IPV) against women has been recognised as a public health problem with far-reaching consequences for the physical, reproductive, and mental health of women. The ecological framework portrays intimate partner violence as a multifaceted phenomenon, demonstrating the interplay of factors at different levels: individual, community, and the larger society. The present study examined the effect of individual- and community-level factors on IPV in Nigeria, with a focus on women’s status and community-level norms among men. Methods A cross-sectional study based on the latest Nigerian Demographic Health Survey (2013) was conducted involving 20,802 ever-partnered women aged 15–49 years. Several multilevel logistic regression models were calibrated to assess the association of individual- and community-level factors with IPV. Both measures of association (fixed effect) and measures of variations (random effect) were reported. Results Almost one in four women in Nigeria reported having ever experienced intimate partner violence. Having adjusted for other relevant covariates, higher women's status reduced the odds of IPV (OR = 0.47; 95% CI = 0.32–0.71). However, community norms among men that justified IPV against women modified the observed protective effect of higher women's status against IPV and reversed the odds (OR = 1.89; 95% CI = 1.26–2.83). Conclusions Besides women’s status, community norms towards IPV are an important factor for the occurrence of IPV. Thus, addressing intimate partner violence against women calls for community-wide approaches aimed at changing norms among men alongside improving women’s status.
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ISSN:1472-6874
1472-6874
DOI:10.1186/s12905-018-0628-7