Prevalence and Predictors of Intimate Partner Violence among Antenatal Clinic Attendees in a Tertiary Health Institution in Nigeria

Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) against women during pregnancy is a special and peculiar sub-class of violence against women. Anecdotal evidence suggest that such practices are still prevalent in Nigeria. Efforts to eliminate this scourge against women would certainly require good baseline information on the experience and attitude of women towards this social vice.

Aim: The study was undertaken to determine the experience, distribution and attitude of women towards intimate partner violence in Enugu, Southeast Nigeria.

Methods: This was a questionnaire-based cross-sectional study. Data was collected using structured questionnaire and analyzed by means of descriptive and inferential statistics including means, frequencies and X2-tests at the 95% confidence (CL) level.

Results: The prevalence of intimate partner violence during pregnancy is 36.1%. Verbal abuse, 14.4% ranked highest in this study and 23.8% of the respondents affirmed they would seek legal redress in cases of physical violence. There was no report of sexual violence. The main perpetrators of IPV were current husbands, 67.1%. Maternal age and employment status of the respondents’ husbands were 4.2 and 6.7 times independently associated with IPV.

Conclusion: The prevalence of IPV during pregnancy is still high among antenatal women in Enugu. The condition could be ameliorated by provision of employment opportunities for their husbands. Despite the high rates of occurrence of both verbal and physical violence during pregnancy, there is still lack of motivation to seek legal redress. Efforts should be made to convince the policy makers and judicial systems to create legal sanctions for perpetrators of IPV during pregnancy.