Experience of intimate partner violence among female health workers in South East Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is one of the most pervasive forms of violence against women with few studies documenting the magnitude of the problem among female health workers. This was a descriptive cross-sectional study of 392 female health workers. A pre-tested semi-structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were analysed using SPSS Version 15. About 56.6% of the health workers had a lifetime experience of abuse. Verbal (100%) and sexual abuse (71.7%) were the commonest forms of abuse. Most (85.5%) of those who had ever been abused justified it (X² = 86.5, p = .00, OR; 2.3; 1.9–2.7). Respondents >40 years (OR = 8.9, p = .00) and Protestants (X² = 9.1, p = .00, OR: 1.9; 1.3–2.9 had the highest likelihood of ever experiencing any form of abuse. Only 94 (46.8%) of the currently abused have ever complained about their experience. In view of the high level of justification of abuse, female health workers should be educated on IPV.

KEYWORDS:

• Intimate partner violence
• female health workers
• Nigeria

Acknowledgement

The authors acknowledge the female staff of both institutions for being exceptionally co-operative.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.