Prevalence of domestic violence against women

Abstract

Background and Objective: Domestic violence is the most common against women with negative effect on mother’s health, family, children and society. This study was performed to determine the prevalence of domestic violence against women in Bandar Abbas, Iran. Methods: This descriptive cross - sectional study was conducted on 500 women referred to Shahid Mohammadi hospital in Bandar Abbas, Southern Iran. Violence and physical injuries were recorded for each woman using a questionnaire. Results: Domestic violence was reported in 460 (92 %) women. The mean age of women was 33.80±8.64 years. The mean years of marriage were 10.53±7.83 years. 389 (77.8%), 102 (20.4%) and 9 (1.8%) of women were housewive, employee and self employee, respectively. 14 (2.8%) women had addiction background. The most common type of violence against women was psychological (54%), followed by verbal (31%), physical (24.8%) and sexual (6.8%). Level of education and addiction in the families were the main factors in domestic violence. Conclusion: Psychological violence is the most common type of domestic violence and it is related to the level of education and addiction in the families.

Keywords

• Domestic violence
• Women
• Prevalence
• Age
• Employee