Intimate partner violence during pregnancy in Vietnam: prevalence, risk factors and the role of social support

ABSTRACT

Background: Violence against women is a global public health problem. A better understanding of risk factors for intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure during pregnancy is important to develop interventions for supporting women being exposed to IPV.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to measure the prevalence of IPV during pregnancy and analyse how social support and various risk factors are associated with IPV.

Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted among 1309 pregnant women in Dong Anh district, Vietnam. Information about socio-economic conditions and previous exposure to IPV was collected when women attended antenatal care before the 24th gestational week. Information about social support information and exposure to IPV during pregnancy was collected in the 30^th-34^th gestational week. Multivariable regression was used to identify associations between IPV, social support and other potential risk factors.

Results: The prevalence of IPV exposure during pregnancy was 35.2% (Emotional violence: 32.2%; physical violence: 3.5% and sexual violence: 9.9%). There was a statistically significant association between previous IPV exposure, lack of social support and IPV exposure during pregnancy. After adjustment for socioeconomic characteristics, pregnant women who had previously been exposed to IPV were more likely to be exposed IPV at least one time (AOR = 6.3; 95% CI: 4.9–8.2) as well as multiple times (AOR = 6.0; 95% CI: 4.5–8.0). Similarly, pregnant women having a lack of social support had a higher likelihood of being exposed to IPV at least one time (AOR = 3.1; 95% CI: 2.4–3.9) or multiple times (AOR = 2.9; 95% CI: 2.2–3.8).

Conclusion: IPV is relatively high during pregnancy in Vietnam. Previous exposure to IPV and lack of social support is associated with increased risk of violence exposure among pregnant women in Vietnam.

SPECIAL ISSUE:

• Gender and Health Inequality

KEYWORDS:

• Intimate partner violence
• pregnancy
• prevalence
• risk factors
• social support

Responsible Editor

Isabel Goicolea, Umeå University, Sweden

Responsible Editor

Isabel Goicolea, Umeå University, Sweden

Acknowledgments

This research was conducted under the auspices of the larger research project The Impact of Violence on Reproductive Health in Tanzania and Vietnam (PAVE). We are extremely grateful to the pregnant women who took part in this study, the research assistants and health staffs in Dong Anh district.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethics and consent

The study was approved by the Ethical Committee of Hanoi Medical University, Vietnam (Decision 137/HMU IRB dated 29 November 2013).

Paper context

Violence against women is a global problem. IPV during pregnancy does not only affect the women’s health but also imposes adverse health effect on the new-born children. A better understanding of risk factors for IPV exposure during pregnancy is important to develop interventions to support women. In this study (conducted among 1309 pregnant women), we show that there was a statistically significant association between previous IPV exposure, lack of social support and IPV exposure in pregnancy.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

We would like to thank DANIDA (the Danish International Development Agency) for supporting the study. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, manuscript preparation or decision to publish.

Notes on contributors

Thanh Hoang Nguyen

All authors designed the study, developed the questionnaires and supervised the data collection. Thanh carried out the data analysis and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Vibeke supervised the data analysis and interpretation of the findings. Vibeke reviewed the article critically for important intellectual content. All authors commented on manuscript drafts. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.