Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Jan 29:76:5.
doi: 10.1186/s13690-018-0253-9. eCollection 2018.

Women decision-making capacity and intimate partner violence among women in sub-Saharan Africa

Bright Opoku Ahinkorah  1 , Kwamena Sekyi Dickson  2 , Abdul-Aziz Seidu  2
Affiliations

Women decision-making capacity and intimate partner violence among women in sub-Saharan Africa

Bright Opoku Ahinkorah et al. Arch Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Violence against women is a common form of human rights violation, and intimate partner violence (IPV) appears to be the most significant component of violence. The aim of this study was to examine the association between women decision-making capacity and IPV among Women in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study also looked at how socio-demographic factors also influence IPV among Women in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Methods: The study made use of pooled data from most recent Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) conducted from January 1, 2010, and December 3, 2016, in 18 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. For the purpose of the study, only women aged 15-49 were used (N = 84,486). Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to investigate the relationship between the explanatory variables and the outcome variable.

Results: The odds of reporting ever experienced IPV was higher among women with decision-making capacity [AOR = 1.35; CI = 1.35-1.48]. The likelihood of experiencing IPV was low among young women. Women who belong to other religious groups and Christians were more likely to experience IPV compared to those who were Muslims [AOR = 1.73; CI = 1.65-1.82] and [AOR = 1.87; CI = 1.72-2.02] respectively. Women who have partners with no education [AOR = 1.11; CI = 1.03-1.20], those whose partners had primary education [AOR = 1.34; CI = 1.25-1.44] and those whose partners had secondary education [AOR = 1.22; CI = 1.15-1.30] were more likely to IPV compared to those whose partners had higher education. The odds of experiencing IPV were high among women who were employed compared to those who were unemployed [AOR = 1.33; CI = 1.28-1.37]. The likelihood of the occurrence of IPV was also high among women who were cohabiting compared to those who were married [AOR = 1.16; CI = 1.10-1.21]. Women with no education [AOR = 1.37; CI = 1.24-1.51], those with primary education [AOR = 1.65; CI = 1.50-1.82] and those with secondary education [AOR = 1.50; CI = 1.37-1.64] were more likely to experience IPV compared to those with higher education. Finally, women with poorest wealth status [AOR = 1.28; CI = 1.20-1.37], those with poorer wealth status [AOR = 1.24; CI = 1.17-1.32], those with middle wealth status [AOR = 1.27; CI = 1.20-1.34] and those with richer wealth status [AOR = 1.11; CI = 1.06-1.17] were more likely to IPV compared to women with richest wealth status.

Conclusion: Though related socio-demographic characteristics and women decision-making capacity provided an explanation of IPV among women in sub-Saharan Africa, there were differences in relation to how each socio-demographic variable predisposed women to IPV in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Keywords: Decision-making capacity; Intimate partner violence; Sub-Saharan Africa; Women.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Consent to participate is not applicable to our study since it utilised DHS data.Not applicable.The authors declare that they have no competing interests.Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

References

    1. Devries KM, Mak JY, Garcia-Moreno C, Petzold M, Child JC, Falder G, et al. The global prevalence of intimate partner violence against women. Science. 2013;340(6140):1527–1528. doi: 10.1126/science.1240937. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Abramsky T, Watts CH, Garcia-Moreno C, Devries K, Kiss L, Ellsberg M, et al. What factors are associated with recent intimate partner violence? Findings from the WHO multi-country study on women's health and domestic violence. BMC Public Health. 2011;11(1):109–126. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-11-109. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Durevall D, Lindskog A. Intimate partner violence and HIV in ten sub-Saharan African countries: what do the demographic and health surveys tell us? Lancet Glob Health. 2015;3(1):34–43. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(14)70343-2. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cools S, Kotsadam A. Resources and intimate partner violence in sub-Saharan Africa. World Dev. 2017;95:211–230. doi: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.02.027. - DOI
    1. García-Moreno C, Pallitto C, Devries K, Stöckl H, Watts C, Abrahams N. Global and regional estimates of violence against women: prevalence and health effects of intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2013.

LinkOut - more resources